


Out of Time

by SamuelSadi



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Abandoned City, Androids, Bunkers, Cryogenics, Gen, Post-Apocalypse, Post-Nuclear War, Shapeshifters - Freeform, Survival
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2020-03-31 00:13:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 27,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19038427
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SamuelSadi/pseuds/SamuelSadi
Summary: They awoke in the bunker, and when the door finally opens they find a world seemingly in ruins, where GIFfany, with an army of machines, and shapeshifters, had taken over the country, possibly the world. Upon venturing out, the found out that Gravity Falls had become a shadow of a town, hardly nothing remained.





	1. Chapter 1

AVAVA  
( Dipper Pines )  
VAVAV

He was laying on a hard cold surface, it felt like stone under his hands and face. He opened his eyes, everything around him appeared blurry, and at an angle. He tried pushing himself up. It felt as if he had been in the same spot for hours. His muscles were stiff. Maybe he had been, wherever he was, for hours. 

He groaned and looked around, his eyes still hadn't adjusted. Looking around he noticed others laying on the ground around him. At least he was sure that it was others, he couldn't be completely sure.

Dipper looked around again as he tried to figure out where he was, though with his blurry vision he couldn't quite figure it out. He knew this place, it was just out of reach in his mind. He knew that he had definitely been here before.

He moved into a sitting position looking at the others around him. Even with blurry vision he could tell that the closest person to him was his sister. It would take more than a tired mind to make him forget his sister, that and the colors of her sweater was apparent. Either it was his sister, or a paint spill. Then the next closest person was Wendy, it was mainly the red hair that gave it away as he couldn't distinguish any other features, though it could equally be any of the Corduroys. Then, he could make out Soos, who happened to be a bit larger than the others. 

Couple other people lay around him but he couldn't make out anything except shapes and some colors. 

Someone else groaned, though he couldn't tell which of the shapes had made the noise.

He reached over towards his sister and rested his hand on her shoulder shaking it slightly. 

“Ma-” He croaked, it seemed even his vocal cords were not working right. Something had to have happened, he just wished that he remembered what had happened.

He tried clearing his throat. Mabel started to shift due to him shaking her shoulder.

She groaned.

“Ma-bel.” He managed out.

She groaned again, and started to move. From the sounds she was making, he was sure that she was trying to speak. 

“No... d-don't try... to speak.” He croaked out. 

He knew that Mabel was experiencing the same things he had dealt with waking up.

“Whe...re,” her voice croaked out, much like he had. 

“I...” Dipper looked around again, his vision had become more clear. Giant broken glass tubes and busted machinery. As his vision cleared more he noticed how dusty he was, as was Mabel. A lot of dust had accumulated. How long had they been here? He wasn't hungry, so he didn't think that it could have been too long.

“Dip...?” Mabel managed to get out.

“Not sure.” his voice sounded better. “When you can get up, help me wake the others.”

AVAVA

About an hour later he sat looking at the others that was with him. Mabel, who he had known was with him shortly after waking up. Wendy, had also been identified shortly after waking up due to the red hair. Tambry was there, but she was not happy about it. Candy was there, she had been one of the dusty blurry shapes. Soos, had been one of the larger blurs. Pacifica was there as well. None of them could remember what had happened to them. As soon as Wendy had pointed out what the place was. It clicked the moment she had mentioned it.

The Bunker.

However, no one could remember why they were there. They had tried to get out of the bunker, though the door seemed to have been time locked. No matter what they had tried the timer locking the door would keep it sealed until the designated time. Which was another fifteen days. Everything had a thick layer of dust. And by thick, he meant thick. The first concern for having to be there for fifteen days, was food and water. Until Soos, in a random moment of intelligence, mentioned the food that had been stored there.

It wasn't the best tasting, though it would get them by for fifteen days. No biggy.

“So, what are we supposed to do for fifteen days?” Pacifica asked poking the food in her can with a plastic fork, obviously thinking the same about the food as the rest of them.

“My phone isn't working...” Tambry muttered. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Maybe we can figure out how the heck we got here?” Mabel had just swallowed a mouthful of some sort of canned meat.

“I think... I think I remember running from something.” Wendy pushed her food away, either having had enough of it, or just not wanting any more food at the moment.

“Yeah! Dudes, I remember that!” Soos was louder than maybe he intended. “We were with Stan and Ford. And, uh...”

“Something happened.” Dipper said trying to remember.

Then he remembered. An attack. Missiles, nuclear ones were on the way. Stan and Ford had been rushing them to the bunker. Everything happened so fast during their run to what Ford had said was safety. Had collected Pacifica, and Candy on the way. They tried gathering others, but they wouldn't listen. Pacifica hadn't even wanted to go, but Ford picked her up and carried her. Then there was Wendy, she just saw them running, and followed them. Maybe Wendy had assumed that they knew what they were doing. At the very least, trusted that Ford and Stan knew.

He remembered that. He remembered the fear. 

Had the missiles hit? 

That would explain all the dust, right? 

Is everything above obliterated?

Speaking of which. Where were Ford and Stan?

If the bombs hit, could they even go outside in fifteen days? That was one of the things that he hadn't learned about. But he did know, it took at least two weeks for about ninety percent of the radiation to be gone. So maybe the fifteen days were reasonable. He explained what he remembered to the rest, who started remembering. Then something happened with the suspended animation. Ford was messing with the controls. Then they woke up here.

AVAVA

None of this made sense. These computers had dates and times all wrong. They had once had internet access in the bunker, though if the blast hit close it could have knocked out the internet. The radios, and televisions were not picking up signals, ones they used to get. Again, radiation could interfere with the signals. 

Mabel had managed to make crude versions of games that she had remembered. The games had passed a bit of time, but still didn't pass enough time.

He looked back up to the timer. Nine days left. 

Still no Sign of Stan or Ford. They could still be somewhere in the bunker. Their only other trip to the bunker, they hadn't had a chance to explore the entirety of the bunker. So there was a chance.

AVAVA

A few arguments had broken out between a few of them. Mainly, Mabel, Wendy, and Pacifica.

He, Soos, and Candy tried to stay out of it best they could. Though, no one them wanted to leave the bunker area, to return to the lab. Mainly because no one was sure if the security traps had been reset when they made it back through the room.

Without the journal they had no way to deactivate without the combination. That and the food and bottled water was where they were.

He had found several electronic items in the bunker, and all the dates were wrong, just like the computer. Also like the computer, the networks couldn't be connected to.

'Has to be the EMP after the nuclear blast.' He thought to himself.

Considering the dates, which all seemed to be the same, were not possible.

“Dipper!” Mabel whined next to him, startling him.

“Yeah, Mabel?” he looked up from the cell phone that had no service.

“How much longer?” She asked, and he knew, that she knew where to check the timer. However, he sighed, deciding not to argue the point.

“Two days, 3 hours, and 15minutes.” it was disheartening to him as well, Mabel groaned. He felt the same way, as did everyone else in the bunker.

AVAVA

Five more minutes. 

Five minutes until the door would open. And they would be free. It had been getting worse this last day. The bickering had gone way too far. But now that the timer was about to release them, their spirits were lifted.

“It's time, it's time!” Mabel danced around Candy, who was also excited.

“Come on, when will this door open.” Pacifica asked, even though the timer's count down was still going.

“Finally some reception.” Tambry looked more excited than he had ever seen her.

“Real soon, dude!” Soos said his normal peppy mood. That was at least the one constant during these fifteen days in the bunker. Soos' upbeat attitude kept most of the spats from becoming violent.

“C'mon baby! Free us!” Wendy sounded almost giddy.

He watched the timer in silence.

As the timer hit zero. He heard the mechanical turning of gears, of large bolts being shifted unlocking the massive blast door. A hissing sound as the air lock was broken. The smell of fresh air. He knew the bunker had a way to filter air, and clean the co2. But he didn't realize that he had missed the fresh air, as much as getting that first slight scent. That small change in the air. 

The door started opening. 

Mabel was the first to dart out the door once it was open enough for her to run through sideways. 

Wendy not long behind, Candy and Pacifica behind her. Then Soos went next.

He turned and looked back at the bunker, then turned and walked out of the bunker.

At first the bright light was blinding, and took a moment for his eyes to adjust. When his eyes adjusted, what he saw stupefied him. Large trees, old looking trees. Definitely not trees that were here when they entered the bunker. These trees shouldn't exist.

“This isn't right.” He looked around, noticing how different the landscape was from what it had been 15 days ago.

The blast shouldn't have done this.

Could it had been rapid mutation from the radiation? Even that was a stretch in just over two weeks.

He looked around at all of his friends. They were just as confused as he was, which was a relief. 

“What's happened to Gravity Falls?” Mabel was the first to speak, even as she still kept looking for something familiar.

“Dipper?” Wendy looked over to him. “Could Ford... have some kind of... like... teleport thing?”

“Yeah, and like... we teleported somewhere else?” Pacifica said, still looking off into the trees.

“Our tree is the only one that's the same.” Mabel stated, then looked closer. “Except the rust and holes. It looks old.”

“The tree is old,” he turned to look at the tree, and raised his arm to make his point, then stopped looking at it. The tree looked old, really old. Had the radiation weathered the metal? He thought about everything that happened. Getting to the bunker. Ford had told him something, and he couldn't remember what it was exactly, but that he had used the suspended animation device. Then they all woke up, stiff and disoriented. Then the dates on the computer being wrong. Did Ford use the suspended animation? And for how long?

“So, what should we do now?” Pacifica asked.

“Maybe like. We should go towards where the town was?” Soos asked. “We might find something.”

“What if we encounter the radiation?” Candy finally spoke.

“The radiation should be gone, at least ninety percent of it.” Dipper looked back towards where the town normally would be. If what he thought happened, actually happened he didn't know what would be waiting for them, if anything was waiting for them. He wouldn't reveal his thoughts yet, not until he saw the town. “Lets go back and find something to carry things, and bring some food. Just in case we are gone longer than we imagine.”

“But if we were teleported, and we find a town, they will have food.” Mabel announced gleefully.

“I don't think we were teleported.” Candy pointed past the trees. A very distinctive mountain with a chunk missing out of one side. They were in Gravity Falls, and it seemed like they were sleeping for longer than fifteen days.

“I think I know what happened. But, I want to check out the town first. If it's there.” He checked the computer one last time, wrote down something on a scrap piece of paper, and shoved it in his pocket.

“I think you're right. If you're seeing what I see.” Tambry agreed with him. And he hoped they both were wrong.

Posted  
AVAVA  
( Mabel Pines )  
VAVAV

She didn't think that after waking up all weird and crazy. Waiting in the bunker for all that time, and all the arguments among people who were supposed to be friends. Getting outside, and seeing that they were in Gravity Falls, but not Gravity Falls at the same time. She didn't think anything could surprise her. That was before the hike back to town. Where she was expecting to see a town as it had always been. 

Instead. 

Gravity Falls kind of still existed. By kind of, she meant the roads were there, if broken barely visible through the vegetation. The structures still stood, though looked on the verge of falling apart. They looked as though, the slightest touch would cause them to crumble. Now, she knew that it wouldn't. Couldn't. Since there was wind blowing, and they didn't crumble. Though, they did look very fragile.

Trees had grown through houses. A some had even grown into a few of the buildings. Nature had reclaimed what belonged to it.

“Well, Dipper?” Mabel asked, while the others looked at him. 

“After getting into the bunker, Ford used the suspended animation machine. I'm not sure how long he set the machine for... Maybe, Maybe he hoped that suspended animation would save us from the radiation. Anyways, I think that we ended up in suspended animation a lot longer than he planned.” Dipper looked around again, she wasn't sure what he was thinking. “I would have to examine things a bit more. But I'm guessing from first glance, based on the trees growing into the buildings... maybe a couple hundred years.”

“A hundred years!?” Pacifica looked frantic.

“That's like... a long long time.” Soos said taking his hat off. “Like, even older than Gravity Falls is.”

“Dipper said a couple hundred years.” Candy looked over to Dipper. “Do you know exactly how long?”

“Yeah, Dip'n Dots, how long has it been?” She peered over Dipper's shoulder.

“Well. Best I can do is guess,” he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. And sighed. “Five hundred years.” 

“S'what it says on my phone too.” Tambry was looking at her phone, nothing of note there. “Still no reception though.”


	2. Chapter 2

.

.

AVAVA

( Mabel Pines )

VAVAV

She, Candy and Soos decided to explore the town. While the others looked around the Bunker.

Nothing really was going on in the town, or what was left of it. They had went to the Mystery Shack first. Which looked like it was still in decent condition, until Soos went to walk up the front steps, and the first step snapped. It didn't appear as if any of the wood was solid enough to walk on. Or at least, they were not willing to try going into the building, that was if they could even get over the porch.

The library, being made mainly with stone. But the shelves had given way over times, and books littered the floors in front of the shelves. According to the news papers time stopped when they were 'sleeping'. She assumed while the blast didn't effect the town, maybe the radiation kept them from returning to the town. Considering none of the buildings were destroyed at least not during a nuclear blast. Couple of the news papers crumbled in her hands when she tried to pick them up. So she scanned the others, without touching.

Nothing else worked since there was no power.

How did the bunker have power? She'd ask Dipper.

The Northwest Mansion was still standing, and in good condition. Considering most of the mansion was stone, brick, and marble. But nothing really to mention. Most of the other buildings were the same way.

"So, it looks like the town left." Soos said. "Maybe from the nuclear fall out thingy."

"Must have been the radiation. Maybe the town did not get hit with the blast, because of the cliffs surrounding the town. But the radiation." Candy shrugged, "That had to have been it."

"Well, lets head back to..." Mabel started but was interrupted by howling. "What was that?"

"Sounded like a wolf." Candy said looking around and stopped looking in the directions of another, closer, howl. "We have to go. I think that they are hunting us. Or will be once they smell us. Or hide."

"Let's go!" Mabel said. "The howling is coming from the opposite way."

AVAVA

She leaned against the door to the bunker after getting inside. All she knew about wolves that she knew, was that they didn't hunt alone. They hadn't seen anybody out there. Hadn't seen much in the way of animals. Had the radiation effected the animals. Maybe the wolves were some kind of mutant monsters. She would have to ask Dipper what he thought. But she was glad that they had managed to make it back to the bunker, before the wolves caught up with them. What if the mysterious creatures still existed? She sure didn't want to run into any of those crazy creatures, or the gnomes.

She'd rather fight the monsters than deal with the gnomes.

They hadn't really managed to find out anything about the town, other than that it was still standing, mostly. That the town seemed to 'stop' once the blast happened. It could have been a safety issue with returning. The town could have turned into another Cher... Cher..., she couldn't remembering the name, but she knew people stopped living in that town after the plant exploded, or something.

Dipper should have come with them. Candy was smart, but she didn't want take notes or anything. Not that she did either, but it wasn't that she didn't want to, it was just that she didn't know what she should be noticing. Candy would have known.

'Speaking of Dipperino. Where is he and the others?' She wondered to herself while looking around.

"Any idea where anyone went?" Candy asked looking around as she had.

"Maybe they're still exploring the place. Maybe they found something neat, and they are still checking it out?" Soos had said as he opened one of the MRE's and began to eat. He seemed to love the things, while everyone else tolerated them. There wasn't anything really wrong with the packaged meals. Mabel just wanted something fresh.

AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

VAVAV

Dipper had separated himself from the group that was exploring the bunker. Pacifica had too many questions, all of them valid questions. Though, questions that he didn't have answers to. Then she got upset that he didn't know the answers. It wasn't as if there was a book that explained what to do when you were catapulted centuries into the future, that wasn't fiction based. He didn't know what food sources would be available. After almost five hundred years, some of the species of vegetation could be extinct. What new species of fruits there could be.

Tambry had decided to stay in her room all day. Maybe she was taking advantage of a bed. Or was just going through cellphone withdraws.

Past their current clothing, he didn't know what would or could be available. The bunker had many different supplies, from MREs to clothing. Most of the clothing was Ford's size. It was possible for Mabel to alter the clothing. Well it would be if there was sewing machine anywhere, but he doubted that his great uncle had one somewhere. Most of them could make due with baggy clothing, though Soos was another story, as was Pacifica for different reasons.

He knew that the town of Gravity Falls was gone. He had taken a cellphone out of the bunker when they left no signals available. Which could mean there wasn't any for the phone to connect to. Or that his phone being half a millennia old, it wasn't compatible which was what he was going for. Any kind of wireless signals could be using different frequencies, that the older devices were not designed to pick up. He had always wondered about that in movies. That phones and things would connect automatically, when it shouldn't be able to. Movie magic he supposed.

He was sure that humanity had survived, but had no way of finding them. His group, while varies in different knowledge, wouldn't be able to make a trek through Oregon's wilderness to find some kind of civilization.

His wandering had managed to kill some time, and had also brought him to a different part of the bunker. At first it didn't seem much different until he came across a set of stairs. Most of the bunker stayed at pretty much the same level. The change in elevation was something that interested him. So he went up the stairs. Maybe it was some kind of living quarters, or something. It would at least get them off the floor.

His hunch was on the mark as he went down the hallway, opening doors. Room after room behind each door. He wasn't sure exactly how many people his great uncles had planned to house, but so far there were more than enough beds, if any of them were still in decent shape. A couple rooms of more canned food, that he wasn't sure was any good anymore. He didn't think anyone had tested five century old canned food. He was sure that he didn't want to test it, though would if they needed. Which considering their situation they would surely need food soon.

He continued checking room after room. His mind on the food. Even if the food he had found was edible they would still need more, there were six people counting himself. The food would only last so long. They would have to look for more food. Maybe something in the forest was edible. He walked though the door at the end of the hall.

'But how are we going to...?' He stopped in place staring at the contents of the room. Then said aloud, "Those'll help."

Two UTV sat in the middle of what looked like a garage. Then he sighed, no tires. He looked around the room. All sorts of tools and several large barrels. No tires.

'Well that's a bust.' He thought wondering what was in the barrels.

He got a crowbar from one of the benches and pried the top off one of the barrels. It smelled like oil. He could barely see stuff in the barrel. He used the crowbar, and pulled up what looks like belts, hoses...

'What?' He wondered. 'Oh! Rubber! It wouldn't have made it all these years.'

He hurried to the other large barrels opening them, All the rubber was in the barrels. But he couldn't...

'Soos. Soos could do this. It's like a big golf cart right?'

AVAVA

When he made it back to the area where they had been living, he was glad to see Mabel and the others had returned.

"Dipper there are wolves!" Mabel said rather loudly, then again he didn't know how close these wolves came.

"Is everyone okay?" He asked, noting that everyone was there. No one was missing, and it didn't seem that anyone was injured.

"Yeah, they were miles away." Candy said before turning her attention to Wendy, who it seemed she had been filling in how the town fared.

"Well, I found something. Well I found a couple somethings. But first, grab everything we have." Sadly personal effects were minimal. Pretty much only what they had on them at the time they were ushered into the bunker.

Once everyone had what they had, and carrying boxes of the MREs, which they would come back for the rest later. He had them follow him through the hallways and up the staircase that lead to what he was referring to the dorms. Which everyone was more than happy with. A bed for each of them. A bathroom with a shower. Assorted clothes that were packed in sealed vacuumed sealed bags. Granted not stylish, but clean. And a laundry room so they could wash their current clothes. Mabel had even managed to find a living area, or communal area. With a tv, and a ton of movies. Had to have been Stan's idea. Ford wasn't too fond of wasted time.

Again, his great uncles seemed to plan for a lot of people, though not many made it into the bunkers.

Soos was more than willing to test the five hundred year old food. While he didn't ask Soos to do it, he knew that it needed to be done. He wouldn't stand in his way. They needed to test the food.

"Soos, come with me." Dipper said leading the older man to the door that lead to the garage. Mabel, Pacifica, and Candy had decided they wanted to shower first, and wash their clothes, along with taking the blankets, sheets, and pillows out of their vacuumed sealed prisons. Everyone was happy to not have to take turns using the one bed they had. Wendy had decided to follow Dipper and Soos to see what he was excited about. Though, he was sure, like himself, they did not expect to find vehicles.

"Whoa, big golf carts!" Soos said as he expected the older guy was excited. "No where are the..."

"Over here in the oil. Everything rubber is in these barrels." Dipper explained that he was sure his great uncles stored all the rubber in the oil, so that it would survive years. Though, he was sure that they didn't imagine them staying in oil so long term. "Do you think you can get one of them working?"

"No probs. I can fix'em both. All the parts are here. Might take a bit." Soos said as he started looking over the UTVs. "Maybe I can get one ready by tomorrow, dude."

"Alright, Soos buddy. Maybe we can be sure one's ready by tomorrow if I give you a hand." Wendy said.

"Alright. Come find me if you need me." Dipper said leaving. He would stay to help, but since he lacked the strength, and the knowledge to help. He decided to explore a bit farther.

AVAVA

( Soos Ramirez )

( First Soos centric for me )

VAVAV

It was a lot more difficult to put the big golf cart together than he thought. It wasn't that it was to different, or that he couldn't. It turned out the engines had been taken apart, all the rubber seals were stored in oil. He would be totally less far along, if Wendy didn't decide to help him. She had taken over putting the engines back together, since she had experience with helping her dad when he worked on the lumber yards vehicles.

You would think that putting the engine back together would be the difficult part, and that Wendy had the worst of it. But right now, the tire and rims were making a fool out of him. And there was no way he was going to lose to a piece of rubber again.

"Ugh," He grunted as he managed to get one of the tires on a rim.

"Nu-ice, dude. You got one." Wendy called over her shoulder. "Y'know, putting an engine together that isn't completely covered in grease isn't too bad."

"One down." He looked over to the seven other tires. He only needed three more to get this one working. But he knew that he would need to fight the others on eventually.

AVAVA

Wendy had finished the engine, and it was working smoothly. She had went to bed a couple hours before, right after he finished the last tire. So, they now had one UTV that was ready to drive. He told Wendy that he was going to start on the other engine.

Sure when it came to most subjects, like history or science. And he didn't always know all the words used around him. Sometimes people thought he was an idiot. He used to think they were right. At least until Mr. Pines had given him a job. He could pretty much fix anything. And mechanics happened to be something he excelled at. But that was a couple hours before. It was late he was sure. Though he didn't know what time it was. First thing he wanted to do, was to ask Dipper so he could reset his watch.

He had finished the second engine, and it ran.

"Time for bed." He yawned as he went to one of the rooms. He wasn't sure who had made his bed for him, but he was sure happy they did.


	3. Chapter 3

AVAVA

( Wendy Corduroy )

VAVAV

"Whoooo! YEAH!" Mabel's scream came from behind her in the other UTV, as they drove down one of the roads. Soos, Dipper, and Mabel were right behind her. Candy, Tambry and Pacifica were with her.

"Yeah! Gun it" Candy called from beside her. And alright, she couldn't complain too much she understood the stress of being cooped up in the bunker.

Of course she could head Dipper's arguments. Which was smart, they had no clue what changes could have happened to the terrain.

"Stop up here!" Wendy called out, coming up to Main St, or what was left of it. The road looked pretty much like gravel now where a road used to be. Soos pulled up next to them. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well. This trip isn't going to be that long. This was mainly just to make sure the garage lead out, which it did. And to see how the UTV's worked out," He patted Soos on the shoulder, "Nothing against you, but after all this time. I didn't know if it would work. Luckily they work. Thanks to you, and Wendy."

"No probs lil'dude." Soos said.

"Alright, so. We can explore the town a bit more, just to help with being cooped up so long." Dipper looked at Wendy. "We should be back before it gets dark."

AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

VAVAV

During their ride around the ruins of Gravity Falls, Dipper kept checking his phone for any signs of a signal. To no avail. He wasn't sure if there wasn't a signal to find. Or if his phone was too obsolete that it couldn't even identify a signal as a signal.

Humanity had to have endured in some way. There had to be other people. He got along with everyone in their group, but still he wasn't sure if he could keep everyone alive and fed.

Yes, he had everyone's help. Even with everyone else, he wasn't sure if he knew everything needed.

There needed to be something.

Their trip took them to the tunnel that lead in and out of Gravity Falls. Which remained open, and clear. That was good.

Soon he would gather supplies and a few of them would go out and explore some of the surrounding cities. They stopped at the entrence so Soos could run into the woods to use the bathroom.

His phone beeped for a second, he checked it.

'Networks Available'

He clicked the icon, and nothing was there.

"Hey," he walked over to the UTV Wendy was in, as Soos returned. "Lets go through the tunnel to make sure it's all clear. We're not going to go far." he added when Wendy looked like she was about to ask something. "We are going to check out other cities later, but this tunnel needs to be clear. Plus I wanna see how bright the lights gets, in case we have to go out at night."

"Alright, you're the boss." Wendy started the engine. Dipper and Soos got back into the vehicle with Mabel.

"Lets go!" Mabel said, still excited that they weren't in the bunker.

They were all excited. Him more so, because he got a signal. Brief as it was, he hoped that it was the mountains that was interfering. Nothing but the bunker had power in Gravity Falls, that was why there wasn't a signal there. But maybe there would be one outside. Maybe the small town had just been abandoned. Maybe it was forgotten about. Maybe it was deemed too isolated.

Wendy turned her lights on right before the tunnel became dark, Soos shortly after. It illuminated the tunnel completely. They would be helpful if they had to go out at night. Then when they made it to the other side, they were turned back off.

Outside the tunnel his phone beeped again. They left the tunnel

What he saw surprised him. It looked like an ancient forest with a crumbled road running through it. He had only ever seen trees like this in books or national parks. It looked like no one had been around this area since the bomb exploded. Maybe due to the radiation levels people stayed away, and after so long just never returned.

"Finally, a signal!" Tambry almost yelled out.

'Network Available'

He looked at his phone tapping the words. It wasn't wireless internet. But it was cellular signals. Though no company he knew of. Then again, he was sure it would have changed after so long.

The cell towers that he remembered could travel almost fifty miles. Now? It could be a hundred miles, could even be more. Considering that the signal was not very strong, there was no real way to tell how far the tower was.

"So, what do you think?" Mabel asked. He wasn't sure.

"Dip? So, what are we doing?" Wendy asked.

"Well, not much we can do right now, lets go..." Dipper started and stopped because a herd of deer became visible through the trees. It was a sight to behold.

"Awe! Look at the deer!" Mabel bounced in her seat.

"Dudes, they are big!" Soos said, "Must mean there are a lot of green munchies around here."

"They're just deer." Pacifica scoffed, and Dipper wondered why they brought her. Then again it wouldn't have been nice to leave her. She had been confined to the bunker like the rest of them. "I guess they are kind of cute."

"They look awesome. Totally not afraid of people." Wendy commented, which he had to agree. That also meant they hadn't come in contact with humans before, so they could be a long way from a town. At least animals still remained. That was a good sign. She looked back then reached back and pushed Tambry's leg.

"What? The deer? Yeah, cute. Whatever, I can't get this thing connected." She almost growled, "This must be too old."

"They look delicious." Everyone looked at Candy. While she was not wrong, all of them would like something fresh to eat. She kind of ruined the moment.

It was close to dusk, about time to head back to the bunker.

"Anyways, lets..." A wolf howl interrupted him, then another, then another. Out of no where a pack of large wolves come into view, going after the deer. A couple deer are felled right in front of them. The wolves stop, then looked towards them, growling. "Uh, time to go!"

Both engines were started and it didn't take long to both turn around starting back through the tunnel, wolves on their tail. Left with not much of a choice, once they hit the lights in the tunnel.

"Floor it!" Dipper yelled. Soos hit the gas, he assumed Wendy did as well, as he heard her engine near them. Turned out they were going to test out the UTV's more than thy imagined.

Dipper looked over his shoulder, the wolves had given up, obviously not able to catch them, and they had food behind them. Wendy noticed this about the same time he told Soos he could slow down. The rest of the trip back to the cave that lead to the bunker was quiet. Going out to explore would be more dangerous than he imagined. If he hoped to find anyone, he had to plan.

He knew one thing. If the creatures in Gravity Falls still existed, he wouldn't want to meet up with them. Not after seeing those giant wolves.

AVAVA

Over the next week Mabel and Candy had went out with Wendy to collect plants in things they could use as potters to make the bunker's rooms and living space, 'more homey'. Which he didn't argue with, because it didn't hurt anything and it kept them busy.

This last trip he had asked Mabel and Wendy to check some of the houses, that would probably be dust. But some of the residents of Gravity Falls used to grow vegetables, and had fruit trees. He hoped that they survived, reseeding themselves, and still grew. He hadn't checked when they drove around, because he was continuously checking for a signal.

None of them would argue to fresh food. Even though the canned food was surprisingly still edible. Even though he thought it was completely a waste of time. Soos ate it, and was fine for days after eating it. Upon tasting it, it seemed fine to him. A different better flavor than the MREs, though still fresh food would be nice, and it could spice up the other food. Mabel could only do so much with the spices available in the 'kitchen'. Though she was able to help the taste most of the time. Honestly, even the changes Mabel made was more than welcome.

He had expected the bunker to have some sort of facility where there would be seeds and what not to plant, and honestly there still might be They had yet to explore all of the place. Even with seeds he wouldn't know when to plant. Not yet. He wasn't sure what season it was. While it might not be as important in some places, the pacific northwest got cold earlier than most. Also there was no telling how the climate might have changed.

Today, Soos and Pacifica had joined the rest out looking for plants. The idea of fresh fruits and vegetables had gotten Pacifica interested. Soos went in case they needed to dig up some plants. Wendy had the idea to try to move some of the plants in doors, or in bunker in their case. Wendy seemed to have a lot more knowledge about plants than he did. She had mentioned that her mom had a garden. So he would just let her work on that. He didn't know how they would get light, they didn't have plant lights. They would figure that out.

AVAVA

Dipper was out with Mabel exploring the outside of the town. He hadn't figured out much about how to defend themselves from the wolves. So, the only other thing he had was wolf habit, and he hoped that wolves hadn't evolved too much in five hundred years. He knew that wolves were active at dusk night, and sometime early dawn. But stayed in the den during the day, but were active during the day if they had pups.

Wendy wanted someone to go with them. She was busy with working on the second UTV, as it was not idling right. While he didn't want to say it, he had to bring up the fact that Soos was a bit big, if they needed a fast get away. Not just from the wolves, any kind of predator could be out there. He didn't know but he would rather the UTV could outrun whatever was out there.

They entered and exited a couple forests that had grown up in the past. They had tried going to Portland, through Salem, but couldn't make it through, which caused them to back track an hour.

They had been driving about two hours, they carried extra food, and a ten gallon gas can. A tent if they needed it. They had more than enough gas to get to Portland, and back. Enough food to last them three days. Mabel argued with him about bringing so much with them, but he explained that he just wanted to be prepared. That there was a chance they wouldn't get back to the tunnel by dusk, and Dipper sure didn't want to chance going back through the forest with a pack of wolves. Especially the big wolves they saw.

"I spy with my..." Mabel started.

"Mabel, if it's another tree I'm going to put you out of the UTV." Dipper looked over at her a second, before looking back at the road. He looked long enough to see her slight frown.

"It's not like we can play license plate bingo. And there's only trees out here!" Mabel muttered. "And we haven't seen anything else."

"Well, you could have stayed at the bunker." He had even told her that, but she didn't want him to go out alone. "I know, you just wanted to make sure I wasn't alone. I'm sorry."

"What's that?" She asked, and he should have known. She would milk this.

"You know what I mean."

"What's that?" She repeated.

"No, that!" She pointed, through the trees, and down a hill. And at first he thought she was messing with him, pointing at trees just to get back at him. Then he noticed the structures. He slowed to a stop. He wasn't sure how far the buildings were, but it was at least a good mile down the hill. It was a good distance down a steep hill. He knew the UTV wouldn't fit between the trees, and even if it could he knew it wouldn't make it back up the hill. "What are those?"

"I don't know." The buildings were a design that he didn't know. It looked like a slide shaped building with plants growing up the side. At first he thought it was an old building that was being reclaimed by nature. But upon closer inspection he could see that it was designed that way. Maybe it was to increase flora in building areas. Or maybe a way to replace what had been removed for the building. He wasn't sure. Some kind of building.

"Should we go look?" She asked, and Dipper looked down the hill towards the building that was visible through the trees. He couldn't tell if there were more building as the tree tops stopped him from able to see more than the initial building. He looked for a way down the steep hill, and saw no way he could get down there. Even if he found a path wide enough, he didn't think that the UTV would make it back up the hill.

"Did we pass anything that could have been a road or path?" He looked farther in front of them, hoping to be able to see if he could see a turn off. It was obvious that this road had been forgotten about. The odds that a real road, even in the same state as the road they were on, which was little more than asphalt turned to gravel.

"I don't think so." Mabel looked back towards the building. It had to be some kind neighborhood in a building. "Hey, Dipper?"

"Yeah?" He started the engine, and started forward, looking for a way to get down the hill, that would also lead him back.

"Say we find people. Um..." She looked out the window. "What do we tell them? I mean. Like. Isn't this the kind of thing that would end up us being studied and some junk? Like in some lab?"

"Oh," He stopped the UTV. Dipper hadn't thought about that. If someone appeared from the fifteenth century, they would have been studied. "Well, we don't have to say anything right off the bat. Just find someone we could talk to."

"How're we supposed to explain the five-hundred year old perfect condition UTV? Or the old butt MREs?" She just looked at him, and he wasn't sure what to say.

"Alright, we just go down, if we can find the path. And scope it out. Figure out what's going on. If it looks like trouble, we'll go back to the Bunker." He drove forward.


	4. Chapter 4

AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

VAVAV

The streets were covered in leaves and litter, and not recent either. Very few cars were on the streets. The building, and the others that were now visible were unkempt, and filthy. They drove around looking for anyone. It was creepy. They happened upon a department store. It looked like the building had been evacuated, verses everyone just leaving. As products still lined the shelves and looked untouched.

He and Mabel got out of the UTV and looked around. No one anywhere, and it didn't look anyone had been here in a while.

No newspaper machines, which made sense. Newspapers were fading in their time. He needed to find something that would tell him what happened here. Anything. While he was not a fan of breaking things he didn't see a choice. He got a hammer out of the back of the UTV, and used it to break the glass door on the store.

He waited for the alarm, waited for people to show up. Nothing.

He and Mabel looked around, then Mabel shrugged.

"Um, lets go in?" She walked slowly over the glass so she didn't slide on the glass, and he followed suit. A look around He hoped for a magazine or something. And ended up with nothing.

"Alright." He looked at Mabel. "Lets look around."

He wandered around the store with his sister, who was pushing a cart, tossing stuff in it. He couldn't blame her, it was the freshest thing they've had in a while. It surprised him, that she wasn't going just for junk food. And she was gathering rice. He picked up a box and turned it over.

'Expires 2517'

If he was right in what year it was, whatever happened here, happened two years before. He knew that it couldn't have been a war because no destruction or signs of war. No looting at all, considering this store seemed to have remained untouched for two years. While Mabel gathered food and other supplies, that their great uncles seemed to neglect. Including clothes. Shoes. Other things. He helped her.

While they hadn't seen anyone, but still he didn't want to leave her alone.

He focused on the electronics, maybe one of them could connect to one of the towers. Or pick up signals that his phone couldn't.

They both loaded their looted items on the rack of the UTV, and the back seats.

"So, Portland?" Mabel asked as they got back in the UTV.

"No, not yet." He didn't know what had happened here. Only that something happened, and he thought they should return to the Bunker as soon as possible. "Back to the bunker. First though, I just want to see if the store has something."

"Alright, Broseph." Mabel said.

AVAVA

A couple hours later he was sitting in the passenger seat while Mabel was driving back to Gravity Falls. He held a rifle in his hands. It looked the same as the ones he saw prior to being 'frozen' in time. So he hoped it worked the same. He managed to find some weapons in the department store. He gathered up all the weapons he could carry.

"You're not gonna kill them are you?" Mabel asked, as she was afraid of the wolves, but she didn't want them to die.

"I'm not going to kill them, if I don't have to. It's getting dark, and if they attack us, I'll have no choice. They are not getting us." Dipper responded watching the area. They couldn't be more than a couple miles from the tunnel. Dipper reached up and turned on the lights.

They needed some way to communicate with the others. Then again the bunker was so far underground, talkie-talkies couldn't work. Maybe a CB would work the bunker has a CB station. He could see if Soos could help him hook a CB up to the UTVs.

"I see the tunnel," Mabel continued driving, while he kept watch for any animals.

"I don't want to jinx it, but I think we're going to make it without incident." He kept watching.

A few times he saw shadows moving in the woods, but either it wasn't a predator or it was too afraid of the sounds that the UTV's engine's sound. Worked for him he didn't want to kill any animals. He knew sooner or later they may have to hunt for meat. Though, Mabel would be really irritated with him, as she liked wolves despite their being dangerous.

They made it back to the bunkers garage, and parked beside the other UTV. Mabel jumped out of the vehicle and into the bunker no doubt to let the others know they were back. He just started puling the boxes off of the roof rack. He was sure they would want to make dinner from the food they found. Yes, it was still boxed and canned food. From the looks of it, more than several bags of chips and junk food. But there were many other things.

He planned in a few days to take both UTV's to the stores to gather more food and supplies and see if Soos could help make a trailer out of spare UTV parts without damaging them, and the spare tires. They could carry more supplies with a trailer. He didn't like stealing, but if everyone abandoned it two years prior, was it really theft?

AVAVA

"Dude! Real junk food!" Wendy was beyond happy to have snacks.

"Delicious!" Candy said as she ate the chicken and dumplings that Mabel had made. Granted it all came from cans and dry packages, but compared to the heartburn inducing MREs even he had to admit that it was like fine dining.

"I dunno, I like them both." Of course Soos had no issues with the food. The man must have a stomach of iron.

"Chef could do better." Pacifica muttered even if she was helping herself to seconds. Pacifica's attitude wasn't the best, and honestly he couldn't blame her. This situation was not ideal. She hadn't been the most agreeable person before, and now he had expected her to be more disagreeable. But she was adjusting the best that she could. The best that any of them could.

"If you don't like it, how come you're going for more?" Mabel smirked, the comment causing Wendy and Candy to chuckle.

"I didn't say I didn't like it.." She pulled her plate closer to her, as if someone was going to take it. Not that anyone actually would.

"Not that I'm complaining, but I'm more interested in these." Tambry said between bites of the food, she claimed to not be interested in. Though, she was equally interested in the devices that Dipper had brought back. "Can't wait to get one of these back to a singnal."

Dipper just watched and listened to the idle chit-chat. One of the most peaceful moments they have had since they woke up.

Granted, his and Mabel's trip out had raised more questions and not so many answers. Something else happened between the blast and when they woke up. Honestly, in five hundred years, several disastrous things could have happened in that time.

AVAVA

( Mabel Pines )

VAVAV

She had wandered around the bunker, trying to find something to do. Dipper and Candy were busy working with the electronics that had been liberated from the department store. Turned out upon closer inspection that one was a movie player and some things that looked like the card things that went into your phone. The SD card things. Which Pacifica was currently wrapped up in watching. Soos and Wendy was currently making pull behind trailers for the UTVs. They were planning a big haul.

Dipper planned to have Soos try to get one of the trucks running. Maybe an RV. Dipper said the RV would have to have those off road tires. She didn't know about car things. But she understood. The roads that lead back to Gravity Falls were so far gone most cars wouldn't make it. Maybe the big tires would help.

Mabel had spent some time sewing some clothes. She had taken everyone's measurements, and had folded piles of clothes she had gathered from the store, that each person wanted. She had been altering them to fit better.

Then she had went through the kitchen cabinets deciding on what she was going to make for dinner.

That was hours away though.

So, that lead to wandering. She opened a door at the end of an adjoined hallway.

"What do we have here?" Mabel asked looking around at the many tables and lights. The tables looked like shallow tubs, and it interested her.

She looked around the large room, it looked like a metallic green house, but there were no seeds, or dirt. Then again, she didn't know if seeds would last as long as they had been sleeping. Maybe it was for growing plants after whatever this bunker was designed for was over. Plus they'd have to find seeds to grow, and it's not like they couldn't grow food outside. And really, this room wasn't big enough to feed everyone. So, this would become her inside garden.

'There's a wagon thing in the garage.' She thought, as she took off towards the garage.

Upon getting to the garage and pulling out the wagon, she just stood there. Of course Wendy and Soos just stared at her. Obviously, confused that she had gotten the wagon, but hadn't done anything with it yet. Mainly because she was deciding how she would transport the dirt inside and to the new inside garden. The wagon would only carry so much dirt, and would require many trips. The several trips which would leave trails of dirt if she just used the wagon.

'Bags.' She could use bags to transport the dirt, but they had none big enough.

'Maybe the old clothes? The uniform thingies. I could make cloth bags.'

"Mabel?" Wendy's voice pulled her from her thoughts.

"Huh? Oh. Heh. Just thinking." Mabel said sheepishly.

"I see that, what's on your mind?"

"Just trying to figure out how to move dirt." Mabel said as she started back out of garage, "I figured it out."

AVAVA

Mabel sat in a chair she had dragged from the common area they used. She was completely filthy, and panting. She looked out at the fruits of her labor. She managed to fill three of the eight tables. Inserted the growing bulbs, and had carted several types of flowers and planted, and watered them. She had managed to find a few different flowers that she liked.

Soos and Wendy had kept giving her strange looks as she made her way back and forth with dirt and plants. They had never questioned her, which was shocking. She would have questioned someone going back and forth carrying dirt. She might not have had questions after the plants started coming through. Either way, she didn't mind. She would show them all later.

AVAVA

( Pacifica Northwest )

VAVAV

Pacifica had thought it was going to be horrible staying in this bunker. She had wanted to go live in the mansion, but it was in shambles, and not livable. Some of the walls were solid, all the floors. But the ceilings and roof were gone. All of her possessions were dust. It would have been completely disappointing before this. Honestly, it was disappointing when it first happened. Well, maybe not when it first happened, because they were asleep when it happened. Frozen by some machine Dipper and Mabel's great uncle, she assumed, constructed. She had been disappointed when she found out that everything was gone.

At first she didn't know how to feel about being stuck with everyone here. Not much in common with any of these people. She had spent most of her time in her room, once they found the rooms. Before that, she stuck to herself in some corner. Now, she was minimizing contact with them because she couldn't help anyone.

Wendy and Soos were handling the mechanical things. Which was beyond useful. Dipper Tambry and Candy were busy with the devices that Dipper had found, trying to figure out whats been going on in the last five hundred years. Finally, Mabel... well she wasn't actually sure what Mabel was doing, only that it looked dirty and she didn't want to help with that. She would do a lot of things, but playing with dirt was not one of them.

Though, she was interested in trying to modify clothes. She always liked fashion. She had no clue how to use a sewing machine. She could ask Mabel, but Mabel was busy doing whatever she was doing. Plus it was kind of embarrassing. She had always been able to do everything anyone else could do.

Now?

She didn't have any of the skills needed.

'Why did they even save me?' She wondered as she sat down in the common room. Not that she wasn't grateful to be alive. But she was sure if Ford knew that she had no real skill he would have left her where she was and let her be obliterated. He made a mistake. Ford wasn't known for knowing who was who all the time. He could have assumed she was the big friend Mabel had who was strong.

Unless they had to survive by golfing, she was going to be useless.

AVAVA

She had considered staying back at the bunker while everyone went to the town that Mabel and Dipper had found. Though, as she thought about it more she found it more appealing. To actually see something that wasn't the bunker, and wasn't in ruins. That and she might find something that she could pass her time doing. Maybe find something that would make her useful.

Before they could go to the department store they were going to see about the vehicles. See if any were usable. They passed several cars, they were nice. But Dipper said they needed something to move supplies, and be able to make it back.

Given how messed up the roads were, she could understand that the cars wouldn't make it.

"There has to be some kind of truck or something." Dipper said from the front seat. "Wait that's it."

Dipper pulled next to a truck. Wendy following right behind them.

"Alright, We'll see what we can do here." Wendy said hopping out of the UTV she was driving.

Soos opened the door of the truck and she was surprised the door wasn't locked. It took him a moment to find the release of the hood. They all looked at the engine. It didn't look special to her, then again she had never looked at car engines before.

"What is that?" Wendy asked.

"No clue." Dipper said getting closer to the engine. "Candy, what do you think? What about you, Tambry?"'

"Wrong kinda device. I only know computers." Tambry said.

"It looks like a hydrogen engine." Candy said looking at it. "If it is, this is good. A power cell could last ten thousand hours to forty thousand hours of life. By now? Could be almost endless. But I wouldn't bet on it being limitless. Based on how long it's been. I'd say, say maybe about fifty thousand hours. About five and a half years." She seems to think a moment. She went to the open door, and looked around at the dash. Then pushed a button, and the vehicle started. Though, much quieter than she imagined.

"What? Just like that?" Pacifica just looked that them. She knew nothing about cars, but she didn't think it should have been that easy.

"Hydrogen cells have a long life. Now it would be much longer. I took a guess." Candy muttered.

"Alright, lets hit the store." Wendy said. She started towards the truck as did Soos. "Wait... Who's going to drive the other UTV?"

"Oh! I will!" Mabel called out.

"No!" Dipper called. "Mabel. Remember the golf cart?"

"That was a one time." Mabel started.

"Driving practice?"

"But..."

"The fence?"

"Fine!" Mabel huffed and crossed her arms.

"When we get back, I'll teach you to drive. But right now, it's not a great idea."

"I'm not driving." Candy said surprising everyone. "I'm not great at it. And it's hard to focus."

"I wanna go in the truck." Soos said.

"And I want to drive it." Wendy was excited about this new truck.

"I'll drive." Pacifica said going over to the other UTV. "It's like the golf carts at the country club my parents went to."

AVAVA

The store was so much more than Dipper and Mabel had described it. She had gathered a lot of things that she had wanted. Of course food and drinks, not just soda either, even if she had managed to stash some in the UTV she was driving. Clothes and shoes.

Yes, she knew that wasn't what the trip was about. It was about food and supplies. However, everyone was getting comfort items. Something to keep her occupied when she wasn't being useful. It was amazing to be in a store again. It was kind of hard to leave when Wendy called out it was time to go. She gathered up the rest of the food that she had been getting and started back towards the exit where the vehicles were parked.

She made it out before anyone else, which was surprising because she was sure she was the one that wanted to leave the least. She started to load the things from the cart she was pushing onto the UTV, and it's trailer. Once everything was loaded she leaned against the UTV and looked out at the empty city.

It made her wonder what exactly happened to the entire town.

She saw the rest coming out, and she turned deciding to get ready to help. What she saw shocked her more than anything. A three people were slowly walking towards where the vehicles were. Well it was the people that was shocking, it was also what looked like weapons, that they were carrying. They could have weapons, for the same reason that they did. Though, she didn't want to take that chance and be wrong.

The group advancing stopped then the group came out of the store. Maybe because it was three against seven. The group of three seemed to be talking among themselves.

Dipper and the others walked out, wrapped up in conversation at first. Once Dipper noticed the group he stopped. Then darted to his UTV. Pacifica was confused at first, until dipper pulled out a rifle. Now that she thought about it, she remembered that Mabel had mentioned Dipper gathered weapons the first trip. Wendy was next to run after Dipper, once he started to run. The rifle Dipper held was tossed to Wendy, as Dipper pulled out another rifle.

The small group visibly tensed up as Wendy aimed the weapon, as did Dipper.


	5. Chapter 5

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.

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AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

VAVAV

Dipper aimed the rifle at the people in the parking lot. Not the first reaction that he imagined he would have when he saw someone that was alive. But given how they were dressed. It was like they stepped out of one of his favorite books, or movies. Like scavengers, and given the weapons they carried. At first he couldn't tell they had any weapons, until he looked through the scope and was able to see what they held.

"What do you want?" Dipper called out to the group of people.

During this time he had Soos putting things in the back of the truck. He was going to ask Soos to start loading, since the scavengers were on foot. He and the others had motorized vehicles, they could make a quick get away.

"Maybe they can't understand us?" Tambry spoke up.

"Yeah, I remember reading about the evolution of language, even English would have changed a lot in five-hundred years." Candy added on.

"Either way, Lets get out of here." He said still watching the strangers. He didn't mean to threaten them, but he couldn't take any chances. He had imagined that meeting people wouldn't be as tense. Though, after Mabel had asked about if they would get dissected, or kept in some lab. It kind of made him really worried about people.

Considering something happened to everyone in this city. He didn't know if he could trust these people. Once everyone was in the vehicles, Dipper got into the UTV that he was riding in, and the small caravan left. Dipper watching the strangers the entire time. Though, the strangers didn't seem interested in them anymore, and had started towards the store.

AVAVA

It took them a couple hours to unload and put away all the stuff they had gathered. The kitchen was over flowing, much to Mabel's happiness. Though, he knew that it wouldn't last very long. They would be fine for a while. It didn't stop him from planning another trip, and soon. He had thought that the stores would be easy to scavenge from since the city was abandoned. Even though the other group didn't seem to be threatening, and didn't even pay them any attention as they left. Dipper was worried about them.

He wandered the bunker just to see what was going on.

Soos and Wendy were in the garage working on the UTVs. Dipper didn't understand why since they were working fine. But Wendy explained they had to be kept in perfect condition, since the parts in the garage were all the parts they had. Though, now with the truck it seemed that the UTVs were not the only mode of transportation. It was better to let them handle it, he had no knowledge about mechanics.

Pacifica was in her room, and not paying attention to him as he looked in. She seemed to be yelling and cursing at the sewing machine that she had gotten on their trip. He decided that it was best to not interrupt her when she was upset.

Mabel was in the kitchen preparing their next meal. She seemed happy to have stuff to actually work with. Seemed that in the time that had passed, people had pretty much canned everything. Plus the amount of dehydrated food, fruits, vegetables, even meats. Mabel about went crazy over the ground beef that just needed water added. Being dehydrated meant it would last longer, without refrigeration which was a plus to him, and everyone else.

Last place to check for the other two, since they were not in their rooms. He made his way to the room they had cleared out and started using as a electronics room. Somewhere that he Tambry and Candy could work with the new tech items.

"Hey, Dipper?" Tambry called out before he made it to the door. He didn't know how she had knew that he was near the door. "Hey, Dipper?"

"Yeah?" He walked into the room.

"It worked that time." Candy seemed surprised.

"What do you mean, it worked that time?" Dipper asked.

"Tambry had been saying that for twenty minutes." Candy looked over at Tambry. "I told her it would be faster if she went to find you."

"It would have been faster if you went to get him." Tambry said as she waved Dipper over. "Just come over here, I found something."

The device she was holding had been pre-loaded with books, a lot of books. From history books to fiction books. The library held ten thousand books. Which was interesting on its own. The history books that Tambry had brought up. It explained everything. About the disaster that had been avoided when Ford had dragged them into the bunker. Population had gotten out of control, and continued to grow. The book explained that four years ago, according to the date on the devices. There was talk of a lottery culling. Which would explain why an entire city was abandoned. People who were not culled, he assumed was moved to another city.

The people they had seen in the city could have been left over from the culling. They could have just been trying to carve out some supplies, while hiding from the government. If the government did it. Who knows, it could have been some company that had taken control of the country. If the country still existed. So much that was still needed to learn.

"We'd have to get connected to some network if we want to see recent news. We might be able to connect if we get to one of the companies that supply internet, or whatever it's called now." Tambry said.

"Yeah, we could find out some good info with a connection." Candy picked up another device.

"But we do know one thing." Tambry turned another device to him, that was of a map of what was once Oregon. "We're not on a map. So, at least no one will come around here."

"Even if they did, the bunker is protected. It was built to survive a nuclear blast." Dipper picked up the device with the books. "I'm going to look over this."

AVAVA

( Mabel Pines )

VAVAV

Mabel was excited. They were going on another road trip to gather more supplies. They didn't really need more stuff, but she knew that they would sooner or later. She was very interested in getting new foods to cook with. The maps that Dipper, Candy, and Tambry had been looking at showed a town not too far from where the empty one was. Dipper didn't want to chance running into the people they had saw. He had told them he didn't want to chance there being a lot more of them, but they had to make a stop at that town. Being out numbered did not sound like something that she liked.

Tambry needed to get access to whatever store started the internet. Because she would be able to update all the maps, and be able to tell if there were any cities that were active around them. Most importantly, it would let them find out what happened to the town that they visited.

'Alright, time to hit the garage.' She told herself as she grabbed her back pack, and left her room.

She had walked passed the rooms, and towards where the truck would be. Because they were taking the truck, not everyone was going. Dipper and Wendy were going. Soos and Tambry, and herself. Candy and Pacifica had stayed behind. Pacifica was engrossed in her sewing, and she seemed to be getting very good at it. Mabel praised her whenever she could. Pacifica wanted to help, Mabel could see that. So, she did what she could to be able to help everyone. Candy had started to use some of the devices, and the older tech in the bunker to be able to merge them to combine information, to make it easier for them to use. Normally, it would be simple, but these devices were centuries a part. In the event that she couldn't, because even Candy didn't know if she could. She had asked Dipper to try to find an actual computer.

"Hey you ready?" Wendy asked as she walked into the garage.

"Who's riding in what?" Mabel asked, hoping that she was going to get to drive the UTV again.

"Me and you in the UTV," Wendy said tossing her bag into the back. "Grab a sleeping bag from the corner. The tents are already loaded in the truck."

AVAVA

They were still an hour away from the ghost town. Mabel looked over to Wendy who was driving. Wendy also had promised that she could drive their next pit stop to use the restroom. Which she was more than welcome to the idea. Dipper had let her drive at first, because it was around Gravity Falls, and in a semi familiar area. Though, he didn't want her driving out here.

She didn't know why. She had only been careful.

"So, why did we bring tents?" Mabel asked after had thought about it.

"We're going to be going to another town after this, if Tambry can get the maps updated." Wendy said as Dipper signaled a pit stop, Wendy stopped behind the truck. Well, looks like a pit stop."

"We're going to break for lunch." Dipper said coming around the back of the truck. Joined by Tambry and Soos.

Mabel got out of the UTV, going to the back of the truck to help Dipper pull out the the lunch she had made for them. She had made chicken and rice, with potato flakes, to give it the flavor. Even if the texture was a bit off, it was tasty and it filled you up. She wished that they had real potatoes. She was sure if she could find some, along with other vegetables that she could grow them in the bunker.

"Why do we need the tents again?" She asked.

"If we get the maps updated, we'll be going to the next town. We can camp out." Dipper said, putting his bowl down.

"Why can't we use one of the buildings? Or like a hotel?" She asked.

"That's actually a good idea." Dipper put his plate down. "If we don't need the camping gear, we could bring back more supplies."

"So, we're going to dump the supplies here?" Wendy finished her drink setting the cup down on the tailgate of the truck.

"I guess..." Dipper started.

"We could leave the stuff in the town." Tambry mumbles as she messed with one of the new phones. She hadn't gotten it connected, but she was getting familiar with it. "Then pick it back up some other time. We could leave it here, but we might forget where we left it."

AVAVA

Tambry, Wendy , and Soos managed to get inside a building that given the signs in the windows it seemed to be the place they were looking for. So, they were there looking for more information. While he and Mabel were gathering more supplies they would need if they went to another city. They were not sure how far the next city would be. So, they were preparing the best they could. Without knowing what to expect.

Dipper was helping Mabel make a pot of stew for their lunch, and making biscuits. There was a little restaurant near where they had dropped Wendy, Tambry, and Soos off. They needed a kitchen of some kind. Now he was kind of curious about what happened. About what could make an entire town leave everything behind. The businesses might have been able to take a loss of the equipment, and they hadn't checked any of the apartments or homes. So, he wasn't sure if the people just up and left.

"Isn't it awesome all this stuff is here?" Mabel laughed as she was ladling stew into containers.

"It's a little worrisome. I mean. If the city was destroyed or something, I could see why everything was abandoned." He took the biscuits out of the oven, and put them into containers.

"Alright, all this all done." Mabel finished cleaning up her area. "Lets get everyone fed, and see if they found anything."

AVAVA

He and Mabel collected the containers from the truck, and took them into the building that the others were in.

It was still eerie looking around at the empty streets. He knew no matter how many times he saw the sight he would never get used to it. He tried shaking the thought out of his head as they went inside.

"Dipper!" Soos called as he noticed them walking in. "Dude! Food!"

"Come and get it!" Mabel called out putting containers on one of the counters. "We got stew, and biscuits?"

"You're saving our lives here!" Wendy leaned over the counter as if she were too weak to even move. "Put food in my mouth, I'm too weak."

"I got you dude." Soos exclaimed seriously, putting a biscuit in Wendy's mouth.

As they ate, Wendy explained what had been going on. Tambry had managed to get their devices connected. Tambry had been downloading the recent maps, information on the closest populated areas. All the information that they had missed in the past five hundred years. Wendy had pretty much told them everything that she knew. Since Tambry had become wrapped up collecting information.

"Hey, there isn't a town or city close to us. Everyone was in a hurry to leave, that the utilities had been never been turned off." Tambry began, then got quiet. She stood up fast and started stuffing the devices into her bag. "We gotta get back to the Bunker. Now!"

"What's wrong?" Dipper asked, while Mabel started closing up containers, not even asking. When Tambry, the normally sloth like person, thought something was important enough to drop everything, it was important.

"Remember that shapeshifter you guys found in the bunker?" Tambry asked.

"Yeah?" Wendy asked.

"Well, the reason that everyone left was due to shape shifting things in the area, among other things. Along with other creatures that they believe were mutated by the radiation. That's why there are no populations near us." Tambry picked everything up.

This made Dipper get up and get things packed. They had to get back to the Bunker. Pacifica and Candy didn't know. What if the deer, and the wolves were shifters. Maybe the group of people they had seen at the store were shifters. What else still existed. What could have been affected by the radiation? He didn't know, but they had to get back.

AVAVA

( Pacifica Northwest )

VAVAV

A couple days after the others left, she was walking outside the bunker getting some fresh air. There was nothing in the bunker to do. She had watered all of Mabel's indoor plants. Had eaten lunch. Pacifica had given up sewing for a bit. Her finger tips were sore from being poked with needles. While the sewing machine, she still needed to hand sew some things, and she was not very good at it yet. Mabel said that she had real promise.

She had wished that she had went with the others on their adventure. She and Candy had nothing in common. They tried to have a conversation a couple times, but it never went well. They were just too different. Also, Candy was pretty focused on the devices and how best to use them, and she had no idea how to use them. They were similar to the devices she was used to, but everything was worded differently.

She didn't want to go too far from the entrance. She didn't want to get lost. She didn't think that Candy would come looking for her, since they didn't talk much. The others told her at they very least they would be gone for five days. She did not want to be stuck outside without food for days, or shelter.

Something sounded like rustlings near by caused her to jump.

"Candy?" She called out, maybe wondering if Candy had come out for air, and she hadn't noticed.

The rustling came closer.

"Hello?" Pacifica called again.

"Come closer." A voice called, it was a whisper. It sounded friendly, which was suspicious.

"I have to go." Pacifica started back towards the entrance to the bunker.

"But we can be friends." The voice called, the rustling moved to get closer.

Whoever this person was she had a problem believing that it was friendly. She might be wrong. The people in this time might be this friendly, but she was not going to take any chance.

She kept looking over her shoulder towards the entrance as she backed towards the entrance, never taking her eyes off of the area in the forest where the voice came from. One step after slow step. Pacifica wanted to run to the door, and lock it behind her, but she didn't want to take her eyes off of where the voice was coming from. She couldn't run backwards without risking her tripping, if she fell she would be vulnerable.

"Wait." the voice called, and she noticed someone coming out of the forest. Pale skin, arms and legs seemed off. It's clothing looked off as well. It's hair seemed to blend in with the top of it's head. As if this was a distorted image of a person. The same was wrong with his clothes now that she thought about it, they seemed to blend in with the skin. As it studied her, she watched as the arms and legs seemed to change. The hair and clothes seemed to look as they were supposed to. This was something else. This was not human. It acted like it.

When she refused to wait, it started changing again. It's mouth elongated, claws appearing at his fingertips. It looked less and less like human. She had to get away. She couldn't let this thing get her.

"No! Go away!" Pacifica screamed, as she turned taking her eyes off the creature, and started running back towards the entrance. She heard the thing running after her. She entered the cavern, it not far behind her. She couldn't tell if she was going to make it or not.

She could see the garage. She wouldn't be able to close the garage door fast enough, but she could close the door that lead to the bunker if nothing else.

She was going to make it.

She tripped over a rock. She couldn't catch herself. She heard a loud noise. She tried crawling to the garage then something large landed on her. It got her.


	6. Chapter 6

.

.

AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

VAVAV

They tore through the the tunnel as fast as Soos could get the truck to go. The others needed to know. That there was some kind of creature or creatures wandering around the forest. He held onto the truck the best he could. He rode in the back, with Wendy. He didn't think that Mabel and Tambry could hold on at these speeds.

'Everyone is alright.' Dipper thought to himself. 'Pacifica and Candy are alright. They have to be.'

He had to believe that everyone was alright. Had to believe. He didn't know what he would do with himself someone got hurt when he was supposed to be protecting her.

Soos turned onto the path leading to the bunker. The back of the truck sliding across the ancient gravel, that was once a road. As it straightened, he leaned down and picked up the rifle, watching the treeline.

"Dipper look!" Soos yelled from the truck.

"Dude, what's that?" Wendy called. Dipper looked over as he watched Pacifica run into the mouth of the cave. Then he caught sight of the creature behind her. At first he would have assumed it was just some person chasing her, until it started to look more like some kind of monster. He knew that Soos couldn't pull into the cave without risking running over Pacifica by mistake.

"Soos, pull next to the opening and stop." Dipper said as he turned.

Once the truck stopped, Dipper jumped out of the truck not far behind the thing.

By the time he caught up to them Pacifica had tripped. Dipper took the moment she was out of the way, to aim and take a shot. He watched the creature fall, and land on Pacifica.

"No! No!" Pacifica screamed, Soos had made it to them and was pulling the creature off of her. He assume Pacifica thought it had tackled her, since Soos was moving it.

"I got it." Soos said dragging the creature away.

Wendy and Mabel had made it to Pacifica, who was hysterical. He was sure she wouldn't leave the bunker for a very long time after this. Except the next trip to gather more supplies, they didn't plan to leave. This new revelation about the aftershaves, and other creatures. Staying sealed in the bunker sounded great to him right now.

Pacifica's shallow breathing, quickly turned to sobs. He could understand it. She had thought that the shapeshifter had gotten her.

Wendy and Mabel had helped Pacifica inside. Tambry had went to join Candy to bring her up to speed with the information that they had found. Soos pulled the truck into the Bunker and closed it up, before they went to go and dispose of the shapeshifter. They had decided to burn the remains to be sure that it couldn't come back, if it could come back. None of them knew anything about the shifters. Could they come back from the dead?

AVAVA

It had been a shaky couple days. Pacifica had not come out of her room since the incident with the shifter. None of them could blame her. It was something that was traumatic. Dipper remembered when they faced off with the shapeshifter that had been in the bunker. He and Mabel hadn't been able to sleep for days after facing off with the creature. It changed into the stuff of nightmares.

The only thing he could think of was that the shifter had escaped while his great uncles were preparing the shelter. It could also be how the shifters started. The Journal had mentioned that Ford had found the shifter's egg while excavating, he assumed near the spaceship that had crashed in Gravity Falls. Since there was a creature it was transporting could change shapes.

Ford had explained that the ship crashed millions of years before. Ford also explained that's why weird things happened in the town. Or at least suspected that it was the cause. So, that meant that either the shifter escaped and was able to reproduce, or that there were more eggs. If the one that Ford found was dormant millions of years later and was able to hatch. More could right?

Tambry had been able to update most of the devices that Candy had integrated into the older tech that was already in the bunker. Honestly, most of the tech from the bunker was gutted, as the newer tech held more information, and had much faster processors. Only the mouse, keyboards, and monitors were used. To better access the information. Which held a lot of information that filled in a lot of gaps.

Mostly, they were looking into the recent information to find out more of what happened.

It turns out that most of the west coast had been abandoned. The radiation from the explosion near Gravity Falls, had causes a rise in the creatures. Which caused them to branch out.

It was insane!

Public news papers. Talking about gnomes, and elemental creatures. Talking about half human half bull creatures. Everything that no one had believed them about, had become public knowledge.

He had wondered slightly if friends of his, many years ago, had thought about him and the crazy stories that he had told. Then again it would have taken time for the creatures to have spread out from Gravity Falls. So, it was doubtful that anyone he knew would have still been alive when they emerged.

"So," Dipper jumped at the break in the silence. He looked up at Mabel who leaned on the table he was sitting at. "When are we going for that supply run? It's starting to get cold."

"Soon. I'm not sure." It was true. It was starting to get cold like Mabel had said. He had done some calculations, if they went back to eating MREs they could survive the winter that was on it's way. He didn't know what winters would be like now. Given the temperature it had been for the autumn, he suspected that it would be a cold winter. He wasn't sure.

"Just let us know." Mabel said as she grabbed a bag of gummy candies, and some chocolate. "I'm gonna keep Pacifica company."

"How is she doing?" Dipper asked genially curious. He had tried visiting in the beginning. Before she was letting anyone in. But he hadn't been able to try again.

"That's hard to say." Mabel stopped and sat down next to him on the sofa that they had drug into the common area. "Remember what it was like when we faced off with the shapeshifter? I mean we couldn't sleep for days!"

"I remember, but we got past it." Dipper assured her, but not trying to make light of the situation.

"We weren't alone. We had each other, and Wendy was there." She made a good point. "She was all alone. Yeah you saved her, but she didn't know that we made it back. If Tambry hadn't found out about the shifters, and we hadn't come back, It could have ended badly. That's what scares her."

"Yeah, it scares me too." He was scared.

He hadn't asked for any of this. Hadn't wanted to become the 'leader' of this group. But it seemed that's what he had ended up. The thought of losing one of his group scared him. He hadn't thought about it during those trip to get supplies that something could happen. He knew that something might happen. But he hadn't realized what that could mean for him. That was one of the reasons that he didn't know when they would take another trip to gather more food.

"It scares me a lot." Dipper sighed, "Mabel, it scares me that something might happen to one of you. I'm supposed to protect you all."

"Dipper. We're supposed to protect each other." Mabel put her hand on his shoulder, "You are our leader. I know you don't like it, and it scares the poop out of you. It can't be easy making these choices. But you're not alone. We're here with you. I told Pacifica I'd be back with snacks, then help her some with sewing."

"Yeah, get back to Pacifica. I'm going to go find Wendy, see if we can figure out when we're going out, again." Dipper stood up.

AVAVA

( Wendy Corduroy )

VAVAV

So far the city was quiet, none of them were complaining about that. Any animal they passed on the way, they wondered if it was a shifter. There were a few deer that stopped and looked towards them as they passed, she was pretty sure that they were shifters. She couldn't say that they were, but she couldn't shake the thought from her head. This trip focused more on food, clothing, and blankets.

Mabel and Pacifica were hunting for cloth and stuff at the craft stores they had found in the mall they were in. The main goal was food, but the mall held many of the other things they were looking for. They had decided that the UTVs would carry the additional stuff. The truck and the trailer they had acquired would go towards all the food stuffs they could find. They planned to make a sweep of every grocery store they could find.

Of course weapons. She and Dipper had talked about it. With the threat of any creatures that might still be near the bunker. They didn't want to have to arm themselves. They didn't see much choice in the matter.

Candy and Tambry had made a weird friendship. Not that she and Tambry didn't hang out still. Candy and Tambry had something in common that she didn't have, computer knowledge. Tambry had tried talking with her about it, but it always made her sleepy.

"Hey, everything is loaded. Unless there is anything else you think we might need. Time to go get food." Mabel called with her arms full of various things.

AVAVA

The vehicles loaded down. They were loading the last of their selections, when Mabel caught all their attention, and pointed out into the parking lot. The scavengers were back, three of them instead of three.

Wendy glanced over to Dipper who tensed up. They all had a suspicion that these people could be shifters. She watched as Dipper pulled a handgun out of one of the UTVs. Wendy grabbed the rifle.

"I'm going to try to talk to them." Dipper looked over to her, then turned to Soos. "Soos, you worked with Stan, and you went through the woods a lot. Do you know how to use a rifle?"

"Yeah, bro. I'm pretty good too, one time..." Soos started.

"Tell me later." Dipper didn't seem to want to interrupt, but she had to agree that now wasn't the time. "If things go bad... don't miss."

Wendy followed Dipper around the vehicles and started towards the three scavengers. They didn't look so much like scavengers like they had imagined at first. It could have just been her paranoia. Yeah, they were wearing protective gear, and had weapons. She was sure that was due to the violent shapeshifters. Though, she wasn't sure if they could trust them. Dipper was right though, this had to be done. They finally had to talk to these people.

"Are you human?" Dipper jumped right into it it seems.

"Yes." The three of them said in almost unison, and held up their right arms, showing some kind of brand on their arms. Simply a 'GIF' branded on their arms.

"Show us yours." The middle one looked at Dipper. His hair was long and black that easily went past his shoulders. Dark blue eyes that almost looked gray. A few scars on his face, she wasn't sure if it was from an accident or fighting with shifters.

'Alright, this is going to be bad,' she thought as she tightened her grip on her rifle.

"We're not branded." Dipper said. "But we're not shapeshifters. Besides, couldn't shapeshifters shift those brands?"

"I... well..." The middle one stammered. It seemed that they hadn't thought about that. She actually had worried about not having this brand. Thinking that they might freak out, and become violent. "We never thought of that. I guess that..."

"Lets start over. I'm Wendy, this is Dipper." She gestured to Dipper, to clarify. "We're not shapeshifters, we don't know how to prove it, but we're just here getting supplies. Food and things we need."

"I am, Ahlex. This is Jaxson," Ahlex motioned to his left. The male was slightly shorter than Ahlex, had short brown hair. His eyes were covered by dark goggles. Wendy wondered if that was for effect, or if there was a reason, though she didn't ask because she didn't want to insult anyone. "And this," He motioned to his right. A short hooded figure looked up at her, at least she thought the figure looked up at her. The opening of the hood was faced her way. Black gloved hands reached up and pulled the hood back. Short red hair became visible that framed a pale white face. Dark green eyes. Totally not what she expected. She had expected some grizzled old man. "is Scarlet."

"Hi." Scarlet spoke for the first time, though Jaxson remained silent.

"What about the others?" Ahlex asked, obviously curious of the others. She would be too if the rolls were reversed.

"Guys. You can come over. It's alright." Dipper called. As the others came, Dipper introduced them. "This is Mabel, and Pacifica. Soos is our mechanic. Tambry and Candy."

AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

VAVAV

They were standing close to the entrance to the grocery store. They didn't want to stand out in the open for too long, just in case shifters were around. By this time Mabel had raided some of the food to eat something. They were all a bit hungry, after all it had been a long day.

"You scavenge here for food?" Scarlet asked while eating some gummy candies that Mabel had offered.

"Yeah, don't you guys?" Dipper asked. They seemed to come here often enough to know the area.

"For clothes, and batteries. Weapons and things." Ahlex said. "We grow our own food.

"Not candy!" Scarlet called out. Ahlex rolled his eyes, and Dipper could understand the feeling. This had to be his sister, or like a sister.

"You can't live without candy! C'mon, we'll show you were the best candy is. C'mon Pacifica!" Mabel said and pretty much dragged Pacifica and Scarlet into the store, obviously in search for candy.

"Wait why am I being dragged along? I don't even like candy that much!" Pacifica's voice faded as the door closed.

"I"m sorry about her, she's... excitable." Dipper sighed and shook his head.

Dipper looked around, Soos was talking with Jaxson while they were looking over the engine in the UTV. From the sounds of it, combustion engines hadn't been used in a few hundred years. Hydrogen was the common fuel source now. He wasn't sure what else they were talking about but it was nice that Soos was able to relate with someone. Everyone actually got along with each other at the bunker for the most part. But they were all at least ten years younger than Soos. It was great for him to have someone to interact with.

Tambry and Candy had went to gather more electronics.

"So, why do you come here for food? You don't grow your own food?" Ahlex asked, a pretty reasonable question.

"Well, where we are, there hasn't been a town there for a long time. Very long time. It's hard to explain about how we ended up there. But we don't have seeds or anything. There's a couple fruit trees. But not much else." Dipper leaned against the truck. "So, why do you come for batteries? I mean, don't you have electricity?"

"No, that's how she finds you." Dipper tilted his head at that comment.

"Who finds you?" Dipper asked.

"Where are you from?" Ahlex asked, his eyebrow raised. "Because everyone knows."

"Knows what?" Dipper was curious, something had to have happened. Something that was universally known. They should have looked up more history before they confronted anyone from this era.

"GIFany. She's the one that controls the Shapeshifters and the other creatures." Ahlex just looked at him confused. He wasn't sure what his face looked like, but he knew that he was surprised.

GIFany. He knew her. They all knew her, and knew what she was like. She was a computer program that had been fixated on Soos. That took control of a themed restaurant. She was insane, but the disk had been destroyed. This all comes back to Gravity Falls. It was a wonder that no one knew where it was. Though, after five hundred years it would be easy to have forgotten where all this had started.

"GIFany is here?" Dipper said a bit louder than he planned.

"GIFany?" Soos said, and was visibly scared. Dipper couldn't blame him one bit. "Dudes. She was crazy."

"Soos, Soos. It's alright man. We'll be alright."

AVAVA

Soos was being comforted by the others. That was a very dark part of all their pasts. Now, it seemed that GIFany held almost unlimited power. From the information he was able to get from Ahlex GIFany controlled most of the worlds electric grids. If she was able to cause so much damage controlling just a freaking restaurant with animatronic characters, what could she do with theme parks.

Were aircraft controlled electronically now? Trains? Boats? What could they be up against?

They needed to go back to Gravity Falls. A forgotten town that was off the grid. The bunker was powered by wind, water, and solar powered. All they had to do was grow their own food.

"Look, we need food. Seeds and animals." Dipper came out and said it.

"We can't just give it to you." Ahlex said, looking regretful. "I'd like to be able to."

"Power! What about power?" Dipper thought about it. He had something to trade. Knowledge. Between him, Soos, Candy, and Tambry. They had all the information needed to trade.

"Power?" This seemed to intrigue Ahlex.

"Yeah, Power that's off the power grid. Something that she wouldn't have access too." Dipper explained. "You wouldn't have to come back to town. You could get all the other things you'd need, and you wouldn't have to come back here. What do you think?"


	7. Chapter 7

AVAVA  
( Pacifica Northwest )  
AVAVA

She had finally managed to get away from Mabel and her clone. Dipper had been absolutely no help. He disappeared, the little rat. He was supposed to keep everything in line. It wasn't that she didn't like being around Mabel, it was the opposite, and it was not that she didn't like Scarlet. She just wanted to be in her room. She had wanted to be back in her room ever since she left it.

Admittedly she hadn't wanted to leave the bunker. With good reason. The shifter that had almost gotten her had scared the heck out of her. Nothing in her life had scared her as much as she was that day. It had taken Mabel days to even get her to come out of the room. That was due to her starting to smell like, as Mabel colorfully commented, a box full of Dippers used socks. 

She and Mabel had gotten close at the time, and she wasn't afraid to admit that she had grown quite fond of the spontaneous and wild girl. It was like Mabel breathed life into her. Made her feel like everything would be alright.

When the others was going out for another supply run, Mabel had come and told her about their plans.

AVAVA

She had been in her room, and hadn't left her room for anything other than showers in two weeks. She had gotten much better with Mabel guiding her. She had managed to create a large wardrobe for herself and the others. Though, she didn't know who she was impressing, since they were pretty much all that was left.

No matter how much she tried to bury her fear of the shifters being around any corner, she couldn't avoid it. 

Mabel had told her about her and Dipper's experience with a shapeshifter. How it was traumatic for them and how she and Dipper hadn't slept for days afterwards. Hardly went anywhere alone for weeks. That it had helped them both to have the other one. So, Mabel had thought it was best to stay with her.

“Hey, Pazzy!” Mabel came into her room. 

“Hey, Mabs. What's for lunch today?” She asked, normally Mabel came in to let her know what she was going to make for lunch and dinner about this time. 

“Oh, you're gonna have to survive on your own for a few days.” Mabel said sitting on her bed.

“What? Why?” This bothered her.

“We're going to gather more supplies for the winter that's coming in.” Mabel laid on the bed looking at the ceiling. “Just wanted to let you know. I'm going to bring you some food you can eat while we are gone.

“So, I'm going to be here alone?” That frightened her. What if the shifters got in the bunker and she was all alone? There was no one that could save her. The last time was pure luck that Dipper had found out about the shifters, and came back to let them all know. This time? There wouldn't be anything that would bring them back unexpectedly.

“Yeah,” Mabel said sitting up.

“No, I don't want to be alone. What if something gets in?” She stood up. 

“Nothing's going to get in.” 

“Look, I'm going with you guys. It's safer than being alone here.” She didn't want to leave the bunker. But she was more afraid to be alone, than she was to leave with her friends.

AVAVA  
( Dipper Pines )  
VAVAV

“Whoa, this place is awesome!” Scarlet exclaimed. 

Dipper watched as Scarlet ran from room to room in the bunker. Ahlex wasn't comfortable with the entire group going to their settlement. Soos and Tambry had agreed to go, and help install the solar panels and show them how to maintain them, and how to install more. At first Dipper was against the idea, and had expressed his concerns. Scarlet had volunteered to go with them back to the bunker. It seemed that Mabel, Pacifica, and Scarlet had become fast friends, and wanted to hang around them more. Ahlex wasn't too big on the idea at first. 

Scarlet was one of the few that planted the vegetables, and while she hadn't been doing it for very long she had more experience than anyone from the bunker. After they had finished finding all the parts needed for the solar panels, Ahlex had returned with seeds, and seedlings. While each bag was labeled most of the vegetables were not names he knew. Though, after Scarlet explained what a few looked like, he at least had ideas of what they were.

Scarlet had begged and pleaded explaining that it was only for a couple weeks. That she didn't know anyone her own age. From what he could get out of Scarlet on the way back to the bunker, there wasn't very many people in their group. That there used to be a lot more, but slowly the shifters had taken them. She didn't know what being taken by the shifter meant. She didn't know if the people were killed, or imprisoned. Or if they were used for something else.

Once Mabel had joined in running around the bunker he couldn't watch anymore. It was too crazy and too much energy for him to process. Pacifica had been drug around with them, and he hated to leave her like that. She looked at him pleadingly, but he just muttered an apology and went to his room. Just watching them was tiring, and Pacifica was going to yell at him later.

“This is crazy.” He sighed and fell back onto his bed. It had been a long drive. He didn't even know how the girls still managed to have energy to run around the bunker. He was exhausted. Then he sighed again when his door opened.

“This is where you're hiding.” Wendy said standing at his door. Wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Her hair was wet, it seemed she had taken a shower. She had driven the truck on the way back, which again was a long drive. Luckily they had the good sense to have Mabel and Pacifica with Wendy, and he had Candy and Scarlet. Due to the amount of talking before leaving, and after they got back. He knew that it was a good idea.

“Yeah, they are too wound up.” Dipper laughed a little. “I was getting tired just watching them. Mind if I hang out in here? Candy has hidden in her room, and locked up in her room. The new horde is making dinner.”

“Can the kitchen handle it?” Dipper asked, as Wendy made her way over to him and flopped face first down on the bed next to him. 

“Dunno, don't care.” Wendy muttered into the bed. “So, can I stay or what? 'Cause, I'm not actually going to leave.”

“Well, looks like we're napping.” Dipper muttered, and looked over to Wendy waiting for her to respond. The slight snore let him know that she had already fallen asleep. He chuckles a little and pulls a blanket over her. And lays down next to her.

This was something that he had once dreamed of, but after the day that they had he couldn't actually think beyond laying back down and going to sleep. 

AVAVA

“Time to wake up sleepy head... Oooo sleepyheads!” Mabel's voice roused him. He must have slept in. Mabel didn't normally come wake him up anymore. He rolled over and hit his head on something.

“Oww!” He opened his eyes and saw Wendy, who was now sitting up rubbing her head. “Why'd you headbutt me?

“Sorry.” He felt his cheeks heat up. Mostly because it dawned on him that he had slept in the same bed as Wendy.

“Never thought spending a night with a guy would end in a headbutt, dude.” She chuckled. “Might have to wear a helmet next time.”

“Next time?” He squeaked out before he could catch himself, and he felt his face heating up even more.

“Alright, you two love birds.” Mabel said again, maybe to let them know she was still here. While he sputtered. “It's late and breakfast is getting cold. I'll give you guys some time to get dressed” 

Mabel snickered as she closed the door behind her.

Wendy got up and stretched. Dipper couldn't help but notice how her stomach became partially visible between her shorts and shirt. How even though her hair was tangled and all over the place, she still looked beautiful. He had thought that he had out grown his crush on the older female, and he might have been over it, at least until a seconds minutes ago.

“Whelp, time to get up.” Wendy started towards the door. “Better get going before she comes back with Scarlet.”

“I-I'll see you out there.” He said, and couldn't help but watch her leave. Once Wendy had left he covered his face and fell back on his bed and sighed. “I'm never going to hear the end of this from Mabel.”

'Time to get today started...' He sighed, as he got up and went to find clothes.

AVAVA

Dipper was trying to avoid everyone at the moment. Mabel had started in on him from the moment he entered the common area this morning to grab something to eat. Avoiding everyone wasn't easy in the bunker. Yes, it was a rather large bunker, but still there were only so many places you could go. He knew that at the moment Mabel was showing Scarlet the indoor plants. They were planning on carting in more soil to plant seeds that Scarlet had brought. 

Scarlet had told them that at first she had planned to just make detailed notes for Mabel, since winter was coming and the plants wouldn't survive. With the room that Mabel had made into her indoor garden they would be able to plant vegetables and anything else that didn't get too big. They would have to remove some of the flowers, and put them in planters. That was good for him though, it meant that he wouldn't run into them any time soon. At least until lunch.

Candy was building something in her room, best to leave her be. He had brought her a fire extinguisher, after a past attempt. He couldn't remember exactly what she had said she was building that had caught fire. This time she said she was using some things in a hobby store and was trying to make drones that would patrol the outside of the bunker, then upload on scheduled times. Sounded a lot safer and useful.

Wendy was in the garage the last time that he had checked. He hadn't actually gone into the garage, but he got close enough to hear her muttering and working on the UTV. He had peeked in the garage and found her leaned over working on the engine. Which only made him think more about this morning. That had made him nervous, which made him run for it. Something which worked for him so many times in the past.

He was making himself lunch, hoping that he wouldn't run into anyone to be teased.

“Bro-Seph!” Mabel caused him to jump.

“Dipperino!” Scarlet chimed in about the same time. It seemed that while she had been teaching Mabel about the plants. Mabel was teaching Scarlet how to annoy him.

“Hey, Mabs. Hey Scar.” He tried not to sound annoyed. Mabel was like an animal that could sense fear, except Mabel could sense when you were hiding something. Best thing to do with her, is to try to distract her. “Where's Pacifica?”

“Oh she's in her room making Scar some clothes, so she doesn't have to wear that robe.” Mabel said.

“I'm getting clothes like Mabel!” Scar jumped up and down excitedly.

“So, you been hanging around with Wendy?” Mabel asked

“No, she's in the garage. I didn't want to bother her.” It was mostly true. What she was doing could be important, and he didn't want to be the cause of something that could cause major issues later.

“Dude, she's SO into you man. It's not like it was. We're not twelve anymore!” Mabel grabbed his arm, starting to pull him towards the door. “C'mon. You're going to help Wendy. Now!”

AVAVA  
( Wendy Corduroy )  
VAVAV

What the heck was wrong with her? She had been thinking about Dipper all morning. Something about him had changed, of course growing up does that. But Mabel ribbing him this morning, and Dipper's shyness and stammering this morning was cute. Which had been distracting her all morning. 

Waking up with him this morning, well it hadn't started out hectic when he headbutted her, but that was more Mabel's fault than his. Even though he acted all apologetic and flustered. It reminded her of him a few years before when they were younger. Dipper had been so devoted to her, it made her feel special. After she had sat him down after visiting this very bunker and broke his heart.

She had felt bad about it. At the time it was for the best though. It didn't mean that she didn't feel for him. Of all her relationships, even if it wasn't romantic, the relationship with Dipper had been the most fulfilling. 

She tried shaking the same thoughts that had been going through her mind all morning and again try to turn her attention back to the engine, when she heard muffled arguing and scuffling back towards the bunker.

Had the girls started arguing? 

Some kind of game Mabel had invented, or it could have even been Scarlet, who seemed to have a lot in common with her brunette friend.

She put down her wrench and went to go and started to go see what was going on. 

“Mabel, stop!” She heard Dipper faintly through the door. “Just.. I have...”

“This is for your own good!” Mabel's voice came this time. The door opened and Dipper was shoved through, who fell on his butt looking through the open door. “Have fun!”

Mabel closed the door, and Dipper jumped up and tried turning the handle. It seemed that Mabel was holding the handle on the other side.

“C'mon, Mabel!” Dipper begged, yanking on the door.

Wendy decided to sit on one of the stools and watch him try to get out. It was cute to watch. He should know by now that Mabel would not get tired of holding that door closed. That the spunky brunette would not give up.

“So, what did you do to get locked in here?” She finally decided to ask, while watching him. 

“Uh.” He slowly turned his head and looked at her. He looked like a deer in the headlights. Frozen to the spot. It actually made her feel a little mischievous. Think he would be fun to tease just a little.

She smiled as she started moving closer to him.

“So, what's for your own good?” She stood in front of him. 

“Uh... y'know. S-She was just messing... I m-mean,” he sighed.

“What?” She tried being sultry, though didn't have much experience in that department. 

“I... um... yeah...” Dipper seemed even more flustered than he had been a moment ago. It couldn't actually be working. She was covered in grease, she had to look dirty.

This was not something that she was used to seeing from Dipper. At least, not lately. He had been strong, and unshakable during all this. What they've been through was enough to make anyone a nervous wreck. He's helped hold them all together. And with a simple look, while smeared with grease, she was able to turn him into a babbling idiot. It was kinda thrilling to know that she had the power to do this to him. 

Of course the only reason she could be this bold was because he was almost goo. She put her hands on either side of his face and leaned down slightly pressing her lips against his. Bold move. One she wanted to do. She had been thinking about him all day. It was obvious that he had been thinking about her. This would cut all the middle awkwardness out.

After pulling back she looked into the boys eyes. He had a really goofy adorable grin on his face. Though, she didn't know if he was still unable to form words. 

She looked at him again.

Right now, it looked like he couldn't think past that kiss, so there was no way that he could form words right now.

“Now that's over, wanna help me with this engine?” Wendy just looked at him. 

“W-What?” It was hilarious how shocked and stunned he looked. It was adorable.

“As weird as your sister is, I'm sure she didn't send you in here for us to make out.” She chuckled a little bit thinking that it was possible that's what Mabel had in mind for them.

“So, c'mon, hand me that wrench, and you might learn something new.”


	8. Chapter 8

AVAVA  
( Author's Note )  
VAVAV

 

AVAVA  
( Soos Ramirez )  
AVAVA

Soos had the gas peddle down as far as it would go doing his best to keep the truck on the road. He knew that once the roads ran out and turned to gravel that it would be harder to keep the truck on the road. He didn't have a choice shifters were on his tail. Tambry was in the back of the truck with Ahlex, each of them sporting a rifle taking out any of the shifters that they could.

These shifters were not like the one that Dipper had killed back at the bunker. These were faster. These ones could shift like the one that had been in the bunker years and years before. He didn't know what was wrong with the one that tried to get Pacifica. He knew that he didn't have the intelligence to understand the difference. All he could do was hope that they would get tired.

These ones didn't just shift into human. They shifted into animals, running and flying. 

“Try to hold it on the road, Soos!” Tambry yelled out. 

That confused him, he was keeping to straight. Which was more than he thought he would be able to do given what was going on.

“I am...” Something rammed the back of the truck. The back of the truck skidded a bit and he could barely keep the truck on the road. Through the rear view mirror he saw Ahlex and Tambry's heads, raising from the back of the truck bed. He saw what looked like a large creature that hit them. It was falling back now. It must have ran out of the forest.

“Soos! Any chance we can go a bit faster?” Tambry yelled through the window in the back of the truck. 

“Going as fast as it can.” There wasn't anything else he could do. Even if he could, he didn't know if he would be able to keep it on the road. He was having a hard enough time just keeping all four wheels on the road. 

More gunshots rung out behind him. He couldn't tell if any of the shots actually hit it's mark, but he couldn't take his eyes off the road long enough without wrecking the truck. 

“They're starting to fall back. I think that they are getting tired.” Tambry called. “But keep going. Don't slow down.”

“Got it!” Soos called out, as he kept the the truck at the same speed. 

A loud screech, and two screams came from behind him. He couldn't turn back to look. He couldn't tell what was going on from the side mirrors or the read view mirrors.

“Guys?” He called back. 

Silence. 

“Guys. C'mon guys. Please.” He waited.

“Keep going.” He barely heard Tambry.

“What happened?” He asked.

“It came out of no where. It got Ahlex.” Tambry was crawling through the window. Once she made it through and situated herself. He glanced over, her arm was bleeding. 

“We gotta sto...” They needed to look at that wound.

“No, I'll just use part of my shirt to wrap it. We have have to keep going.” Tambry said. Tying up her arm best she could, the sun had set hours before.

“We're close to home.”

“It's still an hour away.” he was worried. “I think we...”

“Should what? We can't stop, they are not that far behind. They might still be behind us. She might still be behind us. Now with it being dark, we can't even tell.” She leaned back against the seat. “Got any water or something to eat in here?”

“Glove box. Some candy, maybe chips. Some water bottles.” There wasn't much in the truck. But it would get them back to the bunker.

AVAVA  
( Mabel Pines )  
VAVAV

While everyone was sleeping she had a lot on her mind. She was conflicted. She had started liking Pacifica, she wasn't confused about that. But she had started looking at Scarlet. These few days Scarlet had been giving her the same urges that Pacifica had given her. 

Mabel had known for a while that she liked girls. It was after their first summer at Gravity Falls, when she started looking at girls and thinking 'hoo, boy' It was kind of strange for her at first. She knew that it wasn't wrong. But it had been strange for her at first, she had always liked boys. Or she thought that she liked boys. 

Now?

She was sure that being 'boy crazy' had actually been her hiding who she was, even from herself. Now she couldn't even imagine liking boys, it was crazy.

No. It wasn't crazy. What was absolutely crazy was the fact that she liked two girls. It wasn't like it was just lust. Of course she wanted to have sexy time with them both, but it wasn't just that. She, well she couldn't exactly put a finger on what it was. The moment she had seen Scarlet something just clicked. Like it had when she was spending time with Pacifica. 

It didn't help that the sleepovers they had been having, with it being just them. Clothing was... sparse, which didn't do much for her libido.

“Gah,” She sighed, but tried being quiet as to not wake the other two.

She left the room quietly and made her way to the common room. On the way she wondered if they would ever call the common room the kitchen. Only part of it was a kitchen, most of it was couches, the tv, shelves with books. They had scavenged a lot.

She walked into the room and saw Wendy sitting on one of the couches, her feet up on the couch, eating chips. She looked at her, and Wendy looked back. Mabel wondered if she and her brother had... actually, as much as she had pushed them together. She didn't know if she wanted to know what happened.

“Hey.” Mabel said making her way to the chocolate. She normally went for the fruity gummy candies, but right now she was feeling like chocolate.

“Hey.” Wendy moved her feet and set her bowl of chips on the table. “You're up late.”

“Yeah. A lot on my mind.” Mabel said sitting down next to the other girl, and turning, putting her back against the inside of the arm of couch facing Wendy.

“You and your mini harem?” Wendy smirked. Mabel felt her entire face heat up.

“W-WHat do you m-mean?” She stammered. 

“C'mon. You'd have to be blind, and dumb to not see how you ogle them two. Or be Dipper.” She smirked, and now it was time for Mabel to turn the tables.

“Dipper, Huh? So, how did that go?” She asked. Wondering how much had happened after intervening .

“Him? I wore him out all afternoon. By the time I got done with him. He was sweaty and sore.” She smirked and leaned closer.

“What?” Mabel just looked at her long time friend, and mentor. She couldn't believe that she was being so candid!

“I had him help me work on the UTV's engine.” Wendy started laughing. “Had you going there, though. But if you must know, we kissed before that. But back to you.”

“I like them both. Like... not even just lust, Wen. I actually LIKE them both.” She put her head in her hands. “How messed up is that? Is that even okay?”

“Of course it's okay. You can like one person, or be attracted to more than one.” Wendy put her arm around her. “We'll figure all this stuff out. I promise. We have a couple weeks before Scarlet leaves. I'm sure she'll visit. She loves it here.”

“So, we have time, that's good because...” The television's screen flashed red from whatever Wendy had been watching. 

'Garage Hatch Alert' The letters lit up. She didn't know what it meant, she was sure it wasn't good.

“Wake up Dipper!” Wendy said as she got up, running to her room.

AVAVA  
( Soos Ramirez )  
VAVAV

They finally pulled into the tunnel that lead to the town. They ended up stopping so Soos could tighten the bandage on Tambry's arm, and to search the truck for more food, which there wasn't anymore. But he did manage to find another couple bottles of water from under the seat, then continued their journey. Tambry had fallen asleep. He didn't know if she was supposed to fall asleep, so he kept waking her up. Of course, that made her a little grumpy. So, he just kept making sure that she was breathing.

By the time they finally got to the bunker's entrance he started wondering if they'd be able to get in before morning. He knew the code for the door, but if they had locked the door that lead to the bunker, he didn't know.

He pulled the trunk into the garage, and closed the door behind him. He got out, he needed to get help. 

The door was locked.

“C'mon guys!” He banged on the door knowing that it wouldn't help. There was no way they would hear him. The door was thick metal.

It was cold in the garage. Not as cold as it was outside of the garage, but still it had to be in the forties.

He noticed a keypad.

“Alright!” He said pushing in the code that was for the garage door. 

Nothing happened.

He did it again, with the same result.

He finally gave up and started looking around the garage for food, and blankets. As long as they had blankets, and something to eat. They could make it until morning. At least he hoped that Tambry could make it. She said that it wasn't that bad, but he didn't know anything about medicine. 

He heard the door open.

“Freeze!” Mabel yelled as she and the others burst into the garage.

“Mabel! Dipper! Wendy!” Soos called out. “Tambry's hurt! Help me.” 

“How do we know you're not shapeshifters?” Dipper asked.

“I... I don't know. Wait... Am I shapeshifter?” Soos asked. He wasn't sure. If they changed completely, would he even know if he was one?

“That's Soos.” Wendy muttered. “Lets get Tambry!”

AVAVA  
( Dipper Pines )  
VAVAV

After Tambry had been patched up, fed, and resting in her bunk. They were all in the common room. Soos had explained what happened. Shapeshifters had attacked the settlement that Soos and Tambry had went to help install solar power. No one had survived. Ahlex had made it part way, and Soos tried to explain what happened to him, though he had said they had to ask Tambry since she had been with him when it happened. All Soos knew was that something flew out of the sky and took him. Or at least that's all he had managed to get from Tambry before she started shifting in and out of consciousness .

“There is something else.” Soos said looking even more worried than he had before. Which was crazy, after what he had been through, what could be worse. What could make him more nervous?

“She was there.” Soos said almost in a whisper.

“She?” At first he didn't understand, then it dawned on him from what Ahlex had said. “GIFany?”

“I mean, I heard her. And there were some machines there. So, I don't know exactly if she was there or if she was just using something.” He muttered

Scarlet did tell them that the animals were free range, and didn't really need them for anything. So he hoped that they would be fine until they could get there. 

There were a couple off shoots in the cave that lead to the garage. Mabel had the idea of lining the caverns in hay, and mounting heaters to keep the animals warm. Or other caverns mounting grow lights on the walls, and making little farm plots. 

It was all a work in motion.

“Alright.” Dipper said getting everyone's attention. All eyes were on him. “Lets go to sleep. We'll figure out more of this tomorrow.”

Made his way to his bedroom. And was about to close the door. When something stopped him.

“Hey, Dip.” Wendy had caught the door before it closed. “Want some company tonight?”

“I... uh.” Why had she decided to pick now to mes with him. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy the flirting. But...

“No, I... with Tambry hurt, and everything else. I just, you know. I want to not be alone? I mean, I know they can't get in, but I'm still a little worried.” She muttered sheepishly. “And GIFany being here. I mean I know that we knew she was here. But that was when it was just a story, Soos heard her. What do you think that she can do?”

“I don't know, we need to get Candy to start looking into what kind of tech there are in cities that haven't been abandoned.” Dipper said. There was no telling what GIFany had at her disposal. 

Wendy got into his bed and laid down wrapping up with his blanket. Probably the most beautiful sight he had ever seen in his entire life, and he wanted nothing more than to join her. Though with this new information, he had a lot to look up. Candy would be able to find more, and Tambry would also after she healed up. 

“You gonna keep me waiting, Dip?” Wendy called to him. “I know there's a lot on your mind. But we need to sleep if we hope to figure this out.”

AVAVA  
( Mabel Pines )  
VAVAV

Mabel thought about all the craziness that had gone on, and couldn't really believe it all happened. The other group gone. Shifters and machines had killed everyone. It frightened her, within good reason. 

Though, Dipper did explain that none of the machines could get to them. He had mentioned that something about how the town was in a valley, with only the tunnel as a way in and out kept any kind of electrical signals out. When Gravity Falls fell off the grid a long time ago, GIFany lost the ability to return. Dipper didn't know if GIFany had just never returned after being defeated. Or if she had forgotten about the little town after. 

Dipper had said GIFany was an AI. That, yes, she was made from a dating simulation game, but that he thought that she might have been made from systems from the crashed space ship. Which means that she could be, she guessed, a daughter of the original AI. Once she had been freed from Gravity Falls she had freedom.

So, even though they were scary and, from what she could get from Soos' retelling of events, strong. They were all they had to worry about. None of the others had followed them into Gravity Falls. Soos had said that they lost the shifters a couple hours before Gravity Falls. So, they only had the ones that were in the valley. Dipper seemed to think they were not as intelligent as the others. 

Tambry and Candy's drones had been exploring the forest. With parts from current devices, they were a lot more sophisticated than they had ever thought. They had explained that they were sure that there were drones now that would put their to shame. But for what they were used to these were so much more advanced.

The Shifters were not the only things that were spotted in the forest. Other creatures had been seen, though they hid from the drones better than the shifters. The few times they had been seen, the other creatures had hid. Or had been barely in sight. There were really no way to see at night right now. Candy and Tambry had mentioned needing the right kind of lens for the cameras, and no one was too anxious to make any trips out right now. Though, Scarlet did want to go back to where she was from to gather any animals alive, seeds and seedlings. And any crops that had been stored.

Though with all that had happened, they needed something to boost moral. And she had an idea. She was going to need several things, but she had all that here in the bunker. Well, she almost had everything. She'd get Wendy to help with that last two things.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, I know it's taken me a bit of time to get back to this. But, new job that I've been trying to move things around. I think I've finally gotten into a good groove. So, here we are.

AVAVA

( Dipper Pines )

AVAVA

 

He looked out at the vehicles they had managed to collect which had been modified. Two trucks with mounted guns. Well, guns that they had mounted nothing military grade, as they hadn't found anything big enough for that yet. Metal bolted to the sides giving more layers of protection. The hydrogen power cells were a lot stronger than the UTV engines, but the trucks were lighter. Soos had explained that when a shifter had tried ramming the truck had almost flipped it. So, they filled the truck beds with dirt, to help weigh it down. They had tested it, and it hadn't slowed the trucks down at all.

 

Then finally the semi truck, which seemed to have become Mabel's favorite. They didn't have to worry about adding weight to it, once the animals were loaded, it would weigh enough. And the metal was thick enough. He wasn't sure what it used to transport, but it would serve their needs. He wasn't sure how many animals they would be able to transport in one trip. All he knew, was that there could only be one trip. If they managed to pull it off. There would be no way GIFfany would let them get away with it a second time. She had too much power.

 

They knew that they had to go and collect the livestock that was at Scarlet's former camp. It had been two weeks since Soos and Tambry had returned. It was getting colder and while the animals could graze, they may not survive long without proper shelter. If they were still alive at all.

 

When he had figured out that GIFfany couldn't get back into Gravity Falls. Or at least he didn't think she could. With the town being completely cut off the grid. And the mountain range kept signals out.

 

While collecting vehicles and things to modify and reinforce them, they had been chased by GIFfany's minions. The Shifters could never keep up with the vehicles. Though the mechanical things could. Never made it through the tunnel, or over the mountain range. Half way through, or over it would just stop working. Candy had managed to work with some of the humanoid machines, and found out that they used much more sophisticated AI brains.

 

Only things they had to worry about were the Shifters. Although, he was sure that they were not working for GIFfany. The one that attacked Pacifica just might had been a fluke. But just because he thought they were not working with her, didn't man that they weren't. Though he was sure since GIFfany knew where they were, she would have sent the Shifters after them.

 

Bringing the livestock to Gravity Falls was something that needed to be done. They needed the animals to be able to survive. Savaging for food would only last for so long. Even if they salvaged for food, they would eventually have to travel farther and farther. GIFfany already knew where they were going for supplies now, and if they did, they would have to look farther. Scarlet didn't know where other towns were, she hadn't visited any. So, that meant being out of the safety of the valley for much longer periods of time.

 

Even going to get the animals was dangerous enough as it was, and it was somewhere they knew. On top of it being dangerous, they were down one person. Tambry was still healing. The bullets would only work on the shifters. The machines? It might slow them down. Maybe enough bullets would stop them. But those had to be scavenged too, and were not unlimited. If only he had something that could take down machines. He needed a weapon like his Grunkle Ford had when they fought the security droids with. But they were not here in the bunker.

 

The magnet guns.

 

He didn't need to draw the machines closer. But magnets messed up electronics. The stronger they were the more damage they did. The guns were pretty strong, so they would aid in gathering the animals. They had one shot, they needed everything they could pull together.

 

'Ford didn't use the bunker when he came back though, he used the lab.' he thought. He had to go to the lab, under the Mystery Shack.

 

AVAVA

 

He stood in front of the ruins of the Shack. Rather, what was left of it. Wendy, Soos, Mabel, and himself had spent the last couple hours clearing away the rubble to get to the elevator. Nothing more than a pile of rubble lay before him. It seemed like a tree had fell and the ancient wood hadn't been able to handle it, and the building just crumbled. He knew that living in the building again was something that would only be in his dreams. Though, being able to see the place did bring him some bit of comfort, now he wouldn't have that.

 

They were waiting for Soos to come back from the bunker with rope. Didn't have much choice, they needed the magnet gun. The elevator's cable had snapped, and it lay at the bottom on the shaft.

 

“So, whatcha think is left down there?” Mabel was gazing down the shaft.

 

“The lab was made from the ships remains like the bunker. So, it should be structurally sound. Magnet gun was from the ship so it should still be around.” Dipper leaned over looking down to the elevator.

 

“Didn't Ford keep a bunch of creatures down there? Think there is a chance any of them are alive?” Wendy called from the UTV.

 

“Not sure.” Dipper really didn't have any idea if anything could still be down there. Some of the creatures were mythical, and their lifespans were mostly speculated. So, it could be possible that something could be alive down there. “I'll take one of the handguns. If something is down there. Just for protection.”

 

“I'll go with you.” Wendy hopped out of the UTV, as Soos was coming back with the rope.

 

“I got it, guys.” Soos ran up to them with the bundle of rope in his arms.

 

Soos handed the rope to Wendy, her years of helping her father cut down trees, had taught her how to tie a rope, that would more than support someone's weight. He wasn't a fan of heights, but there wasn't much choice. He had to go down. He was their leader, even if he didn't want to be. He couldn't ask anyone to do something that he wouldn't do himself.

 

AVAVA

 

Dipper stood on top of the elevator that was at the bottom on the shaft. From what he could see through the open trap door, nothing seemed to be damaged. So, Dipper assumed that the elevator had already been at the bottom when the building collapsed. Which meant someone or something had gone down, and never came back up. While his great uncle Ford's lab was well hidden, but after five hundred years someone could have found the lab. That didn't explain why the elevator was at the bottom though

 

“Head's up, coming down” Wendy called from above as she was coming down the rope. He stepped to the side giving her room to come down, since she had also decided to bring a rifle, and a duffelbag of stuff. Dipper wasn't sure what she had decided that she needed, but he sure didn't want it to hit him in the head, if anything in the bag was heavy.

 

“What did you bring?” Dipper was curious what she had brought.

 

“Some food, water, ammo for the rifle. Y'know, just in case we get stuck down here. Supplies until Soos can get more rope, or a long chain or something.” She looked at him as if she was confused that it wasn't his idea. Which was something he should have thought about. “Well, c'mon, lets go get that gun thing.”

 

Dipper turned on his flashlight as darkness closed in around them the farther away from the elevator shaft they got. They stepped over rubble and debris as they made their way towards the lab. It was warmer than he had expected. He knew that it stayed the same temperature underground all year long, but with the entrance exposed and with how cold it was becoming he assumed it would be cooler.

 

Their footsteps and breathing were the only sounds in the hallway. Rubble being moved aside as their shoes made contact, echoed through the hallway. Dipper turned his light's beam behind them as he turned to check behind them. He hadn't heard anything, though with what they had been through he didn't trust that something wasn't there.

 

“Stop.” he froze at Wendy's command. “Do you hear that?”

 

Once he heard the noise he stopped. It was faint, but it sounded like talking. It could just be the wind echoing, or coming through a crack playing tricks on their minds. The sound, since they both heard it, was real since they both heard it.

 

“I do,” he whispered, “it's probably just the wind or an echo.”

 

As they got closer to the lab's door, the sound become clearer, and was more like a conversation. Dipper and Wendy had both stopped when they realized that it was people talking. It could be a few things. Looters from another group they hadn't met had gotten trapped when they tried to use the elevator. The lab could have the same kind of power that the bunker had, could still be active and some recording could be playing on a loop. Shapeshifters could be using the lab as some sort of a base, or had gotten trapped down here.

 

Dipper cocked the rifle, and took a deep breath, as they continued to get closer.

 

“C'mon, Stanley. We have to try again.” Dipper heard Ford's voice. Must be a recording on loop. He still kept the rifle raised just in case.

 

“Open the door,” his tried to make his voice as low as possible.

 

“Didja hear that?” He heard Stan's voice.

 

Wendy threw open the door, and Dipper took aim inside the lab. He lowered the weapon the moment he saw his great uncle Stan, his fists up, brace knuckles gleaming in the light, behind Stan was Ford, holding some sort of gun, though it wasn't like any he had seen before, and it wasn't the magnet gun that he was looking for.

 

“Grunkle Stan, Grunkle Ford?” Dipper almost lowered the rifle, then remembered these could be shapeshifters.

 

“Dipper? Wendy? How do we know that you are really Dipper and Wendy?” Ford continued to aim his weapon. Stan lowered his fists.

 

“What do you mean? It's them. How else would they have known about the lab, Poindexter?” Stan asked raising his fists back up.

 

“The shapeshifters, Stan.” Ford never took his eyes off him and Wendy.

 

“We're not shifters, how else would we know who you are?” Wendy looked at Ford. “And before you ask the same thing, Stan knew who we are.”

 

“That's true.” Ford and Dipper said at the same time.

 

“Alright, everyone is who they say they are. There's a way out right?” Stan pocketed his weapons, and picked up his bag. “I don't know how long we've been down here, but I'm ready to get out of here. Lets go, Ford.”

 

“Wait. We need the magnet gun.” Dipper interrupted.

 

“What in world would you need the magnet gun for?” Ford moved deeper into the lab, then retrieved the weapon he needed.

 

“Lets get out of here, and we'll explain.” Wendy motioned towards the way that they had come.

 

AVAVA

 

Dipper had spent the last couple hours catching Stan and Ford up on their situation. About the other group, the shapeshifters and the machines. How they had scavenged the empty stores in the town that seemed to had been up and abandoned over night. How the town was protected. Finally, explained their plan for moving as many of the livestock as possible.

 

While Ford seemed more interested in working with Tambry and Candy on the AI brain they had obtained. Stan wanted to help get the animals. Dipper couldn't deny, that Stan had the skills that they needed for this plan.

 

Dipper didn't argue about Ford wanting to stay at the Bunker. He had managed to convert a lot of the spaceship into usable equipment, and had been able to figure out how it all worked. If they wanted to use the AI brain, or at least figure out if there was any usable information in it, Ford was the one that could figure it out. With Candy and Tambry, there was no doubt there would be something that could be done with all the tech that Candy and Tambry had gathered.

 

Dipper walked around the vehicles that were outside, walking around the vehicles inspecting everything. Making sure the weapons were loaded. That everything was ready when needed. He didn't need to check the fuel, with the hydrogen cells. They had already checked that they were fast enough, even testing using stones, and makeshift bags of dirt and sand in the trailer of the semi-truck to gauge the weight for the animals the best they could.

 

Dipper stopped circling the vehicles. He realized he was just stalling. That they would have to go at some point if they hoped to transport the animals. The longer they stayed away, the more chance that they wouldn't be alive when they arrived. Scarlet had told them that the animals mostly grazed, and didn't need to be 'fed' for the most part. Yes, she had mentioned they usually gave the hogs scraps, but that they would pretty much eat anything. Though, Dipper was worried about GIFfany having them killed just to spite them.

 

Then there were the seeds, seedlings, and plants. They needed to collect as many as they could. Scarlet had mentioned that the plants would survive without them, and the seeds should make it through the winter. She had also mentioned that there were jars of stored seeds they had been storing if they ever had to leave.

 

“Hey, Kid.” Stan's voice came from behind him.

 

“Hey, Grunkle Stan. How's everything?” Stan came to stand beside him.

 

“Better now with real food in my belly. That Mabel can do wonders with that canned, and dried, food can't she.” Dipper looked over to his great uncle. There was a kind of relief having both his great uncles back. So far, he had been doing everything out of pure instinct, now he had guidance. “You've done great here, kiddo.”

 

“It was Ford's bunker.” he just looked at the ground. Not sure what he should say.

 

“Ford didn't go out and find food. Heck, he got us trapped in his lab.” Stan chuckled a bit. “You kept everyone alive. And then saved us, while looking for a weapon. Look, I'm not saying that we were dying. We would have ran out of food.”

 

“You'd have found a way out.”

 

“No, we had tried everything, Dipper. We were just retrying things at that point.” Stan sighed. And looked down to him, reached out and put his hand on Dipper's shoulder. “So, When are we getting this show on the road?”

 

“The plan was right after we got the magnet gun. Normally, I would want to wait until the morning. We have enough time to get there, load the animals, and get back right before sunset. If not, we have enough lights on these things to see anything coming.”

 

“So, Lets get everyone ready.” He and Stan walked back to the bunker.


	10. Chapter 10

( Dipper Pines )  
He stared out the window of the house he was currently in. Quiet, dark, streets were all that he could see. He couldn't tell if there was anything out there, while it hadn't been dark for long, without street lights and house lights, it was dark. There hadn't been anything outside that he could see, since they had made it to the building. He had been checking out the window almost every five minutes or so. When he wasn't looking out the window, he was checking on Mabel, and Wendy.   
He didn't know what happened to everyone else. Hopefully they made it back to the Bunker.  
Everything had been going great. They had managed to gathered most of the animals, and the plants. They had also gathered any items that Scarlet had wanted to keep. Had it all loaded then had started to make their way back to Gravity Falls, when GIFany's drones, and the Shifters had managed to separate the truck that him Mabel and Wendy were in from the rest of the group.   
The Shifters and drones seemed more interested in their vehicle, and not the rest of the group. Dipper had radioed to the rest of the group to continue back home. That they would lose them. They had the truck with mounted guns, and they had the magnet gun, which could have been the reason that they had been targeted. GIFany must had realized how effective the magnet gun was. They had learned that even the Shifters would act confused a bit after the magnet gun was used on them. Dipper assumed that GIFany had something implanted into the Shifters so she could control them.  
It took a bit but they had managed to lose them. Wendy used the magnet gun since she had the best aim. By the time they had lost the Drones and Shifters, it had gotten dark outside. After she had disabled the drones, then stun the Shifters, Dipper had managed to be able to lose them.   
Wendy was exhausted, and currently sleeping on the sofa in what he assumed was a living area. Mabel was making something to eat for them in the kitchen, he hoped that she was able to find something in the kitchen. At least hope she had brought something with them. Honestly, anything at all on their stomachs would be better than nothing.   
He didn't know much about the drones, or the Shifters, but he was sure this house wouldn't keep them out. Mabel and Wendy were calm in the illusion of the safety of the house, and he didn't want to dash their hopes. So, the best thing he could do was to keep checking on them.   
From what he saw, when he wasn't watching out for the enemy, they were in some housing area. Other than that, they didn't know where they were. They had no kind of map to tell them how to get back to Gravity Falls, and if they tried to use any device to figure it out, GIFany would find them in a heartbeat. That wouldn't be good at all.  
“Food is ready,” Mabel came out of the kitchen carrying plates, that she set down on the coffee table. Then reached down and shook Wendy's shoulder. “Time to eat.”  
“Hmm? Oh, thanks, Mabs.” Wendy sat up, and stretched. “I'm starving!”  
“Yeah, thank you, Mabel.” He sat down, trying to ignore the window. He knew that he was wasting his time looking out the window. If he spotted the drones, or any of the shifters, there was nothing he could do. That, and he would be at more risk of being seen.  
“So, this house looks like people packed up, at least.” Mabel commented as she grabbed her own plate. “I mean, there are things missing. A lot of the cabinets were empty. So, it's not as creepy as that other town.”  
“Yeah, but still. The fact that people were, essentially, herded out of here, that's still creepy.” Dipper paused to take a bite of his dinner, not sure what it was, at least it tasted good. “We don't even know what happened to the people. Were they moved to another town? Or were they used for something else?”  
Dipper had no idea what an insane sentient computer program could do to humans. Maybe weapons testing? That was morbid, but was a possibility. Then again, the people could also be used to build machines and weapons for the AI. Was GIFany ruler of the world, or only their country? Had any other nation managed keep GIFany's influence out of their areas? If so, there might be hope for them yet.  
“Lets not think about that. It'll lead us down a dark road.” Wendy looked over at him, maybe she had assumed he had already been thinking about those things. “So, what are we gonna do?”  
“Do?” Mabel asked.  
“Yeah, we can't stay here. It's only a matter of time before GIFany starts having the shifters search these houses. Y'know, since they lost us here, I think she'd have them search here.” Wendy had a point.  
“Well, I suggest that we sleep in shifts, then try to get out of here.” Dipper hoped they'd make it back home.  
“It's better to leave at night though. I'm sure the shifters will have issues seeing at night. And we can totally disable the drones with the Mag Gun.” Another good point from Wendy. “One of us can sleep, one can drive, and the other can watch out, with the Mag Gun. We still get rest, in shifts. Plus, we get a move on. Hopefully, we can find a place to hide out during the day.”  
“That sounds like a plan.” Dipper finished his food, and set his plate down.   
“I'll drive first,” Wendy also set her plate down, “I remember which direction we came from, and remember some of the other landscapes, since I was looking around for shifters. I think I can get us back on track, to get back home.”  
“Well, I guess we should do this before we lose our nerve.” Mabel gathered up the plates. “I'll go make some stuff to eat, so if we get hungry, we'll have something handy.”  
( Mabel Pines )  
Their plan wasn't exactly as she had imagined it. During their escape from the shifters and drones, they hadn't realized how cold it was. Maybe it could have been due to it being daylight outside. In the middle of the night, standing in the back of the truck, Mag Gun in hand while scanning the area for anything that my be after them, it was a lot colder than she thought.   
'Wish I had thought about bringing a blanket.' Mabel thought as she sat down in the back of the truck, her back against cab of the truck.  
She wished that she was inside the truck with Dipper and Wendy, but she didn't want to wake up Dipper, and Wendy was the only one that had been paying attention to where they were coming from. It had only been an hour since they had left the house they were in, and they hadn't gotten that far. Wendy had to drive slow, since she didn't want to use the headlights and alert anything that they were moving around.  
Mabel put the gun down and pulled out food that she had packed. She didn't think that there would be any drones or shifters. Odds were that drones would come around. She had hoped that shifters at least felt cold, since even the clothes were the shifter's skin.  
…  
After a couple hours they had entered another developed area, and pulled the truck over under a bridge. She assumed it was so they couldn't be spotted from the air by drones. She jumped out the of back of the truck, and got into the cab.  
“It feels so good in here!” She exclaimed as she got in next to Dipper. She was really loving the heat.  
“It's pretty cold out there, huh?” Wendy asked, while Dipper yawned, who was still waking up. “We shouldn't be too far from the compound that Scarlet it from. Meaning, we're only a few hours from the bunker.”  
“Hope everyone made it.” Mabel put her hands over one of the vents.  
“Grunkle Stan was with them on the mounted gun, and almost all of them followed us.” Dipper yawned and stretched as best he could, “That's why we left the group. The moment they made it through the tunnel, they would be safe.”  
She had almost forgotten that Gravity Falls was a safe area from GIFany's army. Remembering that helped her relax a bit. They were so close to home, but she was so tired. She wondered if they were going to push on to Gravity Falls, or wait here in the truck.  
“I'm starting to get tired, I'm sure Mabel is tired.” Wendy yawned, and reached over to grab the bottle that had water. “And Dip can't drive and watch out for us. So, I think we should go somewhere to sleep for the night, and go to the bunker when we wake up.”  
“I know we had that plan of taking shifts, but I think we should do this plan. Please, Dipper?” Mabel asked stifling a yawn.  
“I'm not gonna argue with a bit more sleep.” Dipper muttered, almost as if he was falling back to sleep. Which was proven to be that he was, indeed, falling asleep when she looked over to him.  
“Seems the 'aye's' have it.” Wendy put the truck in gear, and Mabel assumed she was looking for a place that would hide the truck from the sky, and, she hoped, would have power so they could stay warm for the night.  
…  
Mabel could see the mountain that the tunnel went through, they were almost home. She wondered what they would find at the bunker, would everyone be there to greet them? Had they gotten away safely?  
'Of course they will be there.' She thought to herself. 'Grunkle Stan was with them, and Soos. Everyone will be alright.'  
She had thought that she would be more excited the closer they got to home. But now that it was happening, she was worried something bad had happened. Anything could have happened. They knew that a lot of the drones and shifters had followed them, but they hadn't known how many there had been to begin with.   
“We're almost...” Wendy had started, then slowed down as the tunnel came into view.  
Drones littered the ground around entrance to the tunnel, pieces of shifters also laid strewn around, along with bodies. Obviously the group had made it this far, at the very least. She wasn't sure how many drones and shifters they had passed. Wendy had to maneuver around the drones and shifter corpses, but had managed to make it to the tunnel, and found that it was empty.   
'He had been right.' She looked over to her brother. Dipper had been sure that the shifters and drones couldn't make it into the valley that had once housed Gravity Falls, and still housed the Bunker. The other side of the tunnel looked the same as it had when they left. That was good in her mind, it meant that none of GIFany's forces had gotten in.  
“At least it's clear on this side.” Dipper sighed out, he was obviously relieved, which told her that Dipper had been worried about his theory being wrong.   
“That's good. Lets hope the Bunker is the same way.” Wendy turned off of the gravel road, onto a dirt path that would lead to the Bunker.  
…  
They saw the Semi truck first, sitting in front of the entrance to the cave, that in turn lead to the bunker. The other mounted truck came into view. They pulled up next to the other truck and got out of the truck. They stretched after a long ride before walking towards the entrance of the cave.  
She had half expected to be tackled by someone as they entered the entrance to the bunker. Had expected someone to be there to greet them. Then she thought about all the carnage outside the valley. She wasn't sure when the fighting had stopped. She guessed that the others could still be asleep, or at least resting.  
The door opened after Dipper had put the code into the keypad, and they walked in. It started off as quiet as they made their way towards the common area. They had wanted to call out to their friends, but didn't want to wake anyone up if they were tired, and sleeping. So, she assumed if anyone were awake they would either be in the common room, or in the workshop on the AI brain.  
“So, where do you think everyone is?” She asked.  
“Well, no one knows we are here. The system only alerts people when a wrong code is entered.” Dipper put his hand on her shoulder, which made her feel better.  
“Well, they have to be around here some...” Wendy started, though was interrupted.  
Stan came around the corner and stopped dead in his tracks as he stared at them. It seemed as if he wasn't sure what he was seeing at first.  
“You guys made it!” Stan stepped towards them.  
“Stan!” They all called out at once.  
“We saw all the shifters and drones.” Dipper started.  
“Did everyone... I mean. Is everyone...?” Mabel couldn't figure out how to ask the question that she wasn't sure that she really wanted to know the answer to.  
“Everyone is alive.” Stan hesitated. “Couple were injured though.”  
“Is it serious? Who?” Wendy asked   
“Soos got a few bumps and bruises, and Pacifica broke her leg. She's currently resting in her room. Candy, Ford, and Tambry are working in the 'lab', as Ford started calling it. Scarlet is tending to Pacifica."


End file.
